UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


CRIME :  ITS  CAUSES  AND 
REMEDIES 


9  4  2  0  r  * 


Crime 

Its  Causes  and  Remedies 

By  CESARE  LOMBROSO,  M.D. 

Professor  of  Psychiatry  and  Criminal  Anthropology  in  the 
University  of  Turin 

Translated  by 
HENRY   P.  HORTON,  M.A. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY  MAURICE  PARMELEE,  PH.  D. 

Assistant  Professor  of  Sociology  in  the  University  of  Missouri 
Author  of  '*  Principles  of  Crijuinal  Anthropology,"  etc. 


LONDON 

WILLIAM   HEINEMANN 

1911 


copyhight,  1911, 
By  Little,  Brown,  and  Compant. 


All  rights  reserved 


THE    UNIVEHSITY    PRESS,    CAMBRIDGE,    U.  S.  A. 


Annex 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE 
MODERN  CRIMINAL  SCIENCE  SERIES. 

At  the  National  Conference  of  Criminal  Law  and  Crim- 
inology, held  in  Chicago,  at  Northwestern  University,  in 
June,  1909,  the  American  Institute  of  Criminal  Law  and 
Criminology  was  organized;  and,  as  a  part  of  its  work,  the 
following  resolution  was  passed: 

"  Whereas,  it  is  exceedingly  desirable  that  important 
treatises  on  criminology  in  foreign  languages  be  made  readily 
accessible  in  the  English  language,  Resolved,  that  the  presi- 
dent appoint  a  committee  of  five  with  power  to  select  such 
treatises  as  in  their  judgment  should  be  translated,  and  to 
arrange  for  their  publication." 

The  Committee  appointed  under  this  Resolution  has  made 
careful  investigation  of  the  literature  of  the  subject,  and  has 
consulted  by  frequent  correspondence.  It  has  selected 
several  works  from  among  the  mass  of  material.  It  has 
arranged  with  publisher,  with  authors,  and  with  transla- 
tors, for  the  immediate  undertaking  and  rapid  progress  of 
the  task.  It  realizes  the  necessity  of  educating  the  profes- 
sions and  the  public  by  the  wide  diffusion  of  information  on 
this  subject.  It  desires  here  to  explain  the  considerations 
which  have  moved  it  in  seeking  to  select  the  treatises  best 
adapted  to  the  purpose. 

For  the  community  at  large,  it  is  important  to  recognize 
that  criminal  science  is  a  larger  thing  than  criminal  law. 
The  legal  profession  in  particular  has  a  duty  to  familiarize 
itself  with  the  principles  of  that  science,  as  the  sole  means 
for  intelligent  and  systematic  improvement  of  the  criminal 
law. 


189eiS 


vi  GENERAL  INTRODUCTION 

Two  centuries  ago,  while  modern  medical  science  was  still 
young,  medical  practitioners  proceeded  upon  two  general 
assumptions:  one  as  to  the  cause  of  disease,  the  other  as  to 
its  treatment.  As  to  the  cause  of  disease,  —  disease  was  sent 
by  the  inscrutable  will  of  God.  No  man  could  fathom  that 
will,  nor  its  arbitrary  operation.  As  to  the  treatment  of 
disease,  there  were  believed  to  be  a  few  remedial  agents  of 
universal  eflBcacy.  Calomel  and  blood-letting,  for  example, 
were  two  of  the  principal  ones.  A  larger  or  smaller  dose  of 
calomel,  a  greater  or  less  quantity  of  bloodletting,  —  this 
blindly  indiscriminate  mode  of  treatment  was  regarded  as 
orthodox  for  all  common  varieties  of  ailment.  And  so  his 
calomel  pill  and  his  bloodletting  lancet  were  carried  every- 
where with  him  by  the  doctor. 

Nowadays,  all  this  is  past,  in  medical  science.  As  to  the 
causes  of  disease,  we  know  that  they  are  facts  of  nature, 
—  various,  but  distinguishable  by  diagnosis  and  research, 
and  more  or  less  capable  of  prevention  or  control  or  counter- 
action. As  to  the  treatment,  we  now  know  that  there  are 
various  specific  modes  of  treatment  for  specific  causes  or 
symptoms,  and  that  the  treatment  must  be  adapted  to  the 
cause.  In  short,  the  individualization  of  disease,  in  cause  and 
in  treatment,  is  the  dominant  truth  of  modem  medical  science. 

The  same  truth  is  now  known  about  crime;  but  the  under- 
standing and  the  application  of  it  are  just  opening  upon  us. 
The  old  and  still  dominant  thought  is,  as  to  cause,  that  a 
crime  is  caused  by  the  inscrutable  moral  free  will  of  the  human 
being,  doing  or  not  doing  the  crime,  just  as  it  pleases;  abso- 
lutely free  in  advance,  at  any  moment  of  time,  to  choose  or 
not  to  choose  the  criminal  act,  and  therefore  in  itself  the 
sole  and  ultimate  cause  of  crime.  As  to  treatment,  j^ere^ 
still  are  just  two  traditional  measures,  used  in  varying  doses 
for  all  Ends  of  crime  and  all  kinds  of  persons,  —  jail,  or  a 
fine  Cfor  death  is  now  employed  in  rare  cases  only).  But 
modern  science,  here  as  in  medicine,  recognizes  that  crime 


r 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION  vii 

also  (like  disgasp)  ^^^  nafnra.l-oangpg  Jt  need  not  be  asserted 
for  one  moment  that  crime  is  a  disease.  But  it  does  have 
natural  causes,  —  that  is,  circumstances  wliicli  work  to  pro- 
Huce  ifm  a  given  case.  ^Snd  as  to  treatment,  modern  science 
recognizes  that  penal  or  remedial  treatment  cannot  possibly 
be  indiscriminate  and  machine-like,  but  must  be  adapted 
to  the  causes,  and  to  the  man  as  affected  by  those  causes. 
Common  sense  and  logic  alike  require,  inevitably,  that  the 
moment  we  predicate  a  specific  cause  for  an  undesirable 
effect,  the  remedial  treatment  must  be  specifically  adapted 
to  that  cause. 

Thus  the  great  truth  of  the  present  and  the  future,  for 
criminal  science,  is  the  individualization  of  penal  treatment, 
—  for  that  man,  and  for  the  cause  of  that  man's  crime. 

Now  this  truth  opens  up  a  vast  field  for  re-examination. 

It  means  that  we  must  study  all  the  possible  data  that  can 

^}^;.^ailSffft  f^^  ^rina^'j  —  the  man's  heredity,  the  man's  physi- 
cal ancT  moral  make-up,  his  emotional  temperament,  the 
surroundings  of  his  youth,  his  present  home,  and  other 
conditions,  —  all  the  influencing  circumstances.  And  it 
•means  that  the  effect  of  different  methods  of  treatment,  old 
or  new,  for  different  kinds  of  men  and  of  causes,  must  be 
studied,  experimented,  and  compared.  Only  in  this  way 
can  accurate  knowledge  be  reached,  and  new  efficient  meas- 
ures be  adopted. 

All  this  has  been  going  on  in  Europe  for  forty  years  past, 
and  in  limited  fields  in  this  country.  All  the  branches  of 
science  that  can  help  have  been  working,  —  anthropology, 
medicine,  psychology,  economics,  sociology,  philanthropy, 
penology.  The  law  alone  has  abstained.  The  science  of 
law  is  the  one  to  be  served  by  all  this.  But  the  public  in  gen- 
eral and  the  legal  profession  in  particular  have  remained 
either  ignorant  of  the  entire  subject  or  indifferent  to  the 
entire  scientific  movement.  And  this  ignorance  or  indiffer- 
ence has  blocked  the  way  to  progress  in  administration. 


viii  GENERAL  INTRODUCTION 

The  Institute  therefore  takes  upon  itself,  as  one  of  its  aims, 
to  inculcate  the  study  of  modern  criminal  science,  as  a  press- 
ing duty  for  the  legal  profession  and  for  the  thoughtful 
community  at  large.  One  of  its  principal  modes  of  stimulat- 
ing and  aiding  this  study  is  to  make  available  in  the  English 
language  the  most  useful  treatises  now  extant  in  the  Con- 
tinental languages.  Our  country  has  started  late.  There 
is  much  to  catch  up  with,  in  the  results  reached  elsewhere. 
We  shall,  to  be  sure,  profit  by  the  long  period  of  argument 
and  theorizing  and  experimentation  which  European  thinkers 
and  workers  have  passed  through.  But  to  reap  that  profit, 
the  results  of  their  experience  must  be  made  accessible  in 
the  English  language. 

The  effort,  in  selecting  this  series  of  translations,  has  been 
to  choose  those  works  which  best  represent  the  various  schools 
of  thought  in  criminal  science,  the  general  results  reached, 
the  points  of  contact  or  of  controversy,  and  the  contrasts  of 
method  —  having  always  in  view  that  class  of  works  which 
have  a  more  than  local  value  and  could  best  be  serviceable 
to  criminal  science  in  our  country.  As  the  science  has  vari- 
ous aspects  and  emphases  —  the  anthropological,  psychologi- 
cal, sociological,  legal,  statistical,  economic,  pathological  — 
due  regard  was  paid,  in  the  selection,  to  a  representation  of 
all  these  aspects.  And  as  the  several  Continental  countries 
have  contributed  in  different  ways  to  these  various  aspects,  — 
France,  Germany,  Italy,  most  abundantly,  but  the  others 
each  its  share,  —  the  effort  was  made  also  to  recognize  the 
different  contributions  as  far  as  feasible. 

The  selection  made  by  the  Committee,  then,  represents 
its  judgment  of  the  works  that  are  most  useful  and  most 
instructive  for  the  purpose  of  translation.  It  is  its  conviction 
that  this  Series,  when  completed,  will  furnish  the  American 
student  of  criminal  science  a  systematic  and  sufficient  ac- 
quaintance with  the  controlling  doctrines  and  methods 
that  now  hold  the  stage  of  thought  in  Continental  Europe. 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION  ix 

Which  of  the  various  principles  and  methods  will  prove 
best  adapted  to  help  our  problems  can  only  be  told  after 
our  students  and  workers  have  tested  them  in  our  own  ex- 
perience. But  it  is  certain  that  we  must  first  acquaint  our- 
selves with  these  results  of  a  generation  of  European  thought. 
In  closing,  the  Committee  thinks  it  desirable  to  refer  the 
members  of  the  Institute,  for  purposes  of  further  investiga- 
tion of  the  literature,  to  the  "  Preliminary  Bibliography  of 
Modern  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology  "  (Bulletin  No.  1 
of  the  Gary  Library  of  Law  of  Northwestern  University), 
already  issued  to  members  of  the  Conference.  The  Com- 
mittee believes  that  some  of  the  Anglo-American  works 
listed  therein  will  be  found  useful. 

COMAIITTEE   ON   TRANSLATIONS. 

Chairman,  John  H.  Wigmore, 

Professor  of  Law  in  Northwestern  University,  Chicago. 

Ernst  Freund, 

Professor  of  Law  in  the  University  of  Chicago. 

Maurice  Parmelee, 

Professor    of    Sociology    in    the    State    University    of 

Missouri. 

RoscoE  Pound, 

Professor  of  Law  in  Harvard  University. 

Robert  B.  Scott, 

Formerly    Professor    of   Political    Science  in   the    State 
University  of  Wisconsin. 

Wm.  W.  Smithers, 

Secretary    of    the     Comparative    Law    Bureau     of    the 
American  Bar  Association,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH 
VERSION 

THE  treatment  of  the  criminal  up  to  the  latter  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century  was  dominated  by  the  theories  of  the 
classical  school  of  criminology.  This  school  was  based  upon 
the  thought  of  the  eighteenth  century  philosophers.  Its  chief 
founder  was  the  distinguished  Italian  criminologist,  Cesare 
Beccaria.  In  his  great  work  entitled  "Crimes  and  Punish- 
ments," published  in  1764,  he  condemned  the  almost  unlimited 
power  which  judges  frequently  had  in  determining  the  punish- 
ment of  criminals.  This  power  frequently  led  to  inhuman  and 
unjust  treatment  of  the  criminal.  Filled  with  the  humanitarian 
feeling  and  dominated  by  the  democratic  ideas  of  the  time, 
Beccaria  insisted  that  no  punishment  should  be  greater  than 
the  crime  warranted,  and  that  all  men  should  be  equal  in  the 
eyes  of  the  law.  Thus  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  classical 
school  was  that  the  treatment  of  a  criminal  should  be  determined 
by  the  character  of  the  crime  that  he  had  committed.  In  each 
criminal  case  it  was  to  be  determined  what  crime  had  been  com- 
mitted, and  then  the  penalty  designated  by  the  penal  code  was 
to  be  applied  regardless  of  the  personality  of  the  criminal. 

We  can  now  discern  many  variations  in  the  treatment  of  the 
criminal  from  the  principle  laid  down  by  the  classical  school. 
Criminals  guilty  of  the  same  crime  are  very  frequently  not  sub- 
jected to  the  same  penalty,  and  the  variations  in  their  treatment 
are  not  usually  due  to  differences  in  their  social  standing  as 
was  frequently  the  case  previous  to  the  time  of  the  classical 
school.  The  treatment  of  the  criminal  is  being  based  more  and 
more  upon  his  own  characteristics  rather  than  upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  crime  he  has  committed.  How  has  this  great  change 
come  about?  The  largest  credit  for  it  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the 
great  Italian  criminal  anthropologist,  Cesare  Lombroso,  who 


xii         INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 

died  in  October,  1909,  Few  men  have  suffered  the  amount  of 
criticism  and  abuse  that  Lombroso  experienced  during  his  Hfe- 
time.  But  if  the  degree  of  interest  and  difference  of  opinion 
aroused  by  his  ideas,  and  the  extensive  literature  devoted  to 
the  discussion  of  them,  are  any  indications  of  his  influence, 
Lombroso  is  certainly  the  most  important  figure  in  criminologi- 
cal science  since  Beccaria.  Let  us  see  what  were  the  character- 
istics of  his  teachings  which  gave  them  so  great  an  influence. 

Lombroso  was  one  of  the  group  of  great  thinkers  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  who  had  the  courage  and  the  wisdom  to  apply 
the  positive,  inductive  method  of  modern  science  to  the  study 
of  human  and  social  phenomena.  He  was  not  the  first  one  to 
search  for  the  causes  of  human  conduct  in  the  physiological 
and  mental  characteristics  of  the  individual,  for  others,  such  as 
Galenus,  Gall,  and  Morel,  had  preceded  him  in  this  study. 
But  no  one  of  these  had  carried  his  analysis  very  far  and  the 
methods  used  were  not  always  very  scientific.  Lombroso  de- 
voted his  whole  Hfe  to  his  study  and  used  thoroughly  inductive 
methods.  His  teachings  immediately  aroused  great  opposition; 
in  the  first  place,  because  of  the  prejudice  which  existed  against 
attributing  human  conduct  to  natural  causes.  But  much  of 
this  opposition  was  also  due  to  the  fact  that  in  his  first  writings 
he  attributed  criminal  conduct  almost  entirely  to  the  character- 
istics of  the  criminal  himself.  That,  however,  he  recognized 
later  on  the  social  causes  of  crime  is  indicated  by  this  book  in 
which  ample  weight  is  given  to  these  social  causes. 

Lombroso  commenced  his  studies  by  spending  several  years 
in  studying  the  characteristics  of  the  criminals  in  the  Italian 
penitentiaries.  In  1876  he  published  the  first  edition  of  his 
"L'Uomo  Delinquente."  In  this  book  he  set  forth  his  theory 
that  crime  is  caused  almost  entirely  by  the  anthropological 
characteristics  of  the  criminal.  But  in  later  editions  of  the  same 
work  he  gave  more  and  more  weight  to  the  social  causes  of  crime, 
and  ultimately  published  the  work  of  which  the  present  volume 
is  a  translation.  While  several  of  his  less  important  books  have 
been  translated  into  English,  neither  of  his  two  principal  works 
have  ever  before  been  translated.  Thus  it  is  that  the  EngUsh- 
speaking  world  is  acquainted  with  his  theories  largely  through 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION        xiii 

hearsay.^  The  Committee  on  European  Translations  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology  has  chosen 
the  second  of  his  great  works  for  translation  in  the  belief  that 
his  theories  should  be  better  known  in  this  country.  The  In- 
stitute is  devoting  itself  to  the  work  of  applying  science  in  the 
administration  of  the  criminal  law,  and  we  are  glad  to  know 
that  Lombroso  approved  of  its  work  in  the  following  words 
written  shortly  before  his  death :  ^ 

"I  beg  to  express  my  satisfaction  at  learning  of  the  call  for 
the  National  Conference  on  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology,  to 
take  place  in  Chicago.  It  will  mark  a  new  era  in  the  progress 
of  criminal  law.  If  I  could  offer  any  suggestion  to  so  competent 
a  body  of  men,  it  would  be  to  emphasize  the  importance  of 
apportioning  penalties,  not  according  to  the  offense,  but  ac- 
cording to  the  offender.  To  this  end  the  probation  system, 
which  it  is  the  great  credit  of  America  to  have  introduced, 
should  be  extended  so  as  to  suit  the  offender's  type  and  indi- 
viduality. It  is  futile  to  fix  a  term  of  imprisonment  for  the 
born  criminal;  but  it  is  most  necessary  to  shorten  to  the  mini- 
mum the  term  for  the  emotional  offender,  and  to  modify  it 
for  the  occasional  offender,  and  to  place*  the  latter  under  the  ^ 
supervision  of  a  judge,  and  not  to  let  his  fate  be  so  fixed  that 
it  amounts  merely  to  a  modern  form  of  slavery." 

The  present  volume  discusses  in  the  main  the  social  causes 
of  crime.  It  has  seemed  well  to  the  Committee  that  in  this  in- 
troduction there  should  be  given  a  critical  summary  of  Lom- 
broso's  theory  as  to  the  anthropological  causes  of  crime  as  set 
forth  in  his  great  work  on  Criminal  Man.^ 

^  A  summary  of  bis  "Criminal  Man"  is  now  published  in  America  (by 
Messrs.  Putnam's  Sons),  under  the  editorship  of  his  daughter,  Signora  Gina 
Lombroso-Ferrero  and  Professor  Ferrero.  The  present  Introduction  covers 
the  ground  of  that  Summary. 

2  Extract  from  a  letter  to  Professor  John  H.  Wigmore,  first  President 
of  the  American  Institute  of  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology,  dated  Turin, 
May  3,  1909. 

It  is  interesting  to  learn  that  Dr.  Lombroso,  in  May,  1908,  was  visited  by 
Mr.  Wigmore  with  the  purpose  of  tendering  him  the  nomination  as  Harris 
Lecturer  at  Northwestern  University  in  1909-10,  his  subject  to  be  "Modern 
Criminal  Science,"  and  that  Dr.  Lombroso  expressed  a  deep  interest  but  was 
prevented  by  his  advanced  age  from  making  any  engagements  to  leave  Italy. 

Dr.  Lombroso' s  death  occurred  a  few  months  after  the  above  letter  was 
written. 

^  The  following  summary  is  taken  in  the  main  from  the  writer's  "Prin- 
ciples of  Anthropology  and  Sociology  in  their  Relations  to  Criminal 
Procedure,"  The  Macmillan  Company,'  New  York,  1908,  pages  25-78. 


xiv        INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  \'ERSION 

A  quotation  from  Lombroso's  opening  speech  at  the  Sixth 
Congress  of  Criminal  Anthropology  at  Turin  in  April,  1906, 
will  give  the  key  to  the  first  stage  in  the  development  of  his 
theory: 

"In  1870  I  was  carrying  on  for  several  months  researches 
in  the  prisons  and  asylums  of  Pavia  upon  cadavers  and  living 
persons,  in  order  to  determine  upon  substantial  differences 
between  the  insane  and  criminals,  without  succeeding  very 
well.  At  last  I  found  in  the  skull  of  a  brigand  a  very  long  series 
of  ata\'Tstic  anomalies,  above  all  an  enormous  middle  occipital 
fossa  and  a  hypertrophy  of  the  vermis  analogous  to  those  that 
are  found  in  inferior  vertebrates.  At  the  sight  of  these  strange 
anomahes  the  problem  of  the  nature  and  of  the  origin  of  the 
criminal  seemed  to  me  resolved;  the  characteristics  of  primi- 
tive men  and  of  inferior  animals  must  be  reproduced  in  our 
times.  Many  facts  seemed  to  confirm  this  hypothesis,  above 
all  the  psychology''  of  the  criminal;  the  frequency  of  tattooing 
and  of  professional  slang;  the  passions  as  much  more  fleeting 
as  they  are  more  violent,  above  all  that  of  vengeance;  the 
lack  of  foresight  which  resembles  courage  and  courage  which 
^alternates  with  cowardice,  and  idleness  which  alternates  with 
^■Ax^  ^'^ythe  passion  for  play  and  activity."  ^ 

His  first  conception  of  the  criminal,  which  was  greatly  modi- 
fied later  on,  was,  then,  that  the  criminal  is  an  ataNnstic  phenom- 
enon reproducing  a  tj-pe  of  the  past.  In  order  to  find  the  origin 
of  this  ata\'istic  phenomenon  he  goes  back  not  only  to  savage 
man  but  also  to  animals  and  even  to  plants.  Crime  and  crimi- 
nals are,  strictly  speaking,  human  phenomena  and  are,  there- 
fore, not  to  be  found  outside  of  human  society.  But  when  a 
criminal  displays  a  strong  tendency  towards  crime  which  results 
from  abnormal  or  pathological,  physiological,  and  psychologi- 
cal characteristics  it  is  necessary  to  search  in  the  lower  species 
for  characteristics  which  correspond  to  those  of  the  criminaL 
The  acts  which  result  from  these  characteristics  Lombroso  called 
the  equivalents  of  crime.  Among  plants  he  finds  such  equiva- 
lents in  the  habits  of  the  insectivorous  plants.  It  is  question- 
able, however,  if  the  so-called  "murders"  of  insects  by  these 
plants  can  be  considered  as  equivalents  of  crime,  since  they  are 

*  In  the  "Archives  d'anthropologie  criminelle,"  Lyons,  June,  1906. 


^LISH  VERSION         xv 

C0i...x^xtted  by  one  species  against  another  and  belong  in  the 
same  category  with  man's  habit  of  eating  animals  and  plants. 
But  among  animals  are  to  be  found  veritable  equivalents  of 
crime  in  acts  contrary  to  the  general  habits  and  welfare  of  a 
species  by  one  of  its  members.  Cannibalism,  infanticide,  and 
parricide  frequently  occur,  while  murder,  maltreatment,  and 
theft  are  used  to  procure  food,  to  secure  command,  and  for  many 
other  reasons.  In  the  past  the  idea  that  crimes  are  committed 
by  animals  was  so  strong  that  in  ancient  times  and  in  the  Middle 
Ages  animals  were  frequently  condemned  according  to  juridical 
forms  for  acts  harmful  to  man.  Various  causes  for  these  equiva- 
lents of  crime  among  animals  have  been  noted,  as,  for  example, 
congenital  anomalies  of  the  brain.  Veterinary  surgeons  rec- 
ognize these  anomalies  and  give  them  as  the  causes  for  the 
misbehavior  of  horses.  Other  causes  are  antipathy  causing 
murder,  old  age  resulting  in  ill-temper,  sudden  anger,  physical 
pain,  etc. 

Not  only  the  equivalents  of  crime  but  those  of  punishment, 
also,  have  been  noted  among  the  lower  species.  Many  cases  are 
on  record  of  a  group  of  animals  having  torn  to  pieces  one  of  its 
members  who  had  committed  an  act  contrary  to  the  weKare  of 
the  group  or  had  failed  in  performing  its  duties  towards  the 
group.  In  this  blind  act  of  vengeance  we  see  the  embryo  of  the 
form  of  social  reaction  called  punishment. 

There  are,  also,  many  habits  of  the  lower  species  which,  be- 
cause they  are  natural  and  normal,  cannot  be  called  the  equiva- 
lents of  crime,  but  which  when  reproduced  among  civilized  men 
become  criminal.  The  same  is  true  of  many  habits  of  savages. 
For  example,  homicide  is  frequently  practised  under  social 
sanction,  such  as  infanticide,  murder  of  the  aged,  of  women, 
and  of  the  sick,  religious  sacrifices,  etc.,  while  cannibalism  is 
prevalent  in  many  tribes.  Theft  also  exists  under  social  sanc- 
tion, though  it  is  not  so  common,  because  the  institution  of 
private  property  is  not  highly  developed  among  savages.  The 
veritable  crimes  among  savages  are  those  against  usage  in  which 
an  established  custom  or  religious  rite  is  violated. 

In  like  manner,  as  among  the  savages,  characteristics  are  to 
be  found  in  the  child  in  a  normal  fashion  which  would  be  crimi- 


xvi       INTRODU< 

naiinanadult,  suchasangoi  utrity, 

lack  of  foresight,  etc.    For  the  first  year  or  more  of  its  iite  a  child 
l^^.i. -._  I   i.,-  !.-_,i  ....  J  its  development  is  det* —  '-    ^  '  ■'   ''y 

h.  •  are,  furthermore,  ti  il 

chiJdren  in  whom  a  tendency  to  crime  manifesto  itself  early. 

It  was  the  consideration  of  these  facts  ^'.ilh  regard  to  the 
lower  species,  savages,  and  children  which  led  Lombroso  to 
formulate  his  first  theory  that  crime  is  atavistic  in  its  origin. 
This  theory,  as  we  shall  see,  he  modified  greatly  later  on.  He 
discusses  the  atavistic  origin  of  crime  in  the  first  part  of  his 
work,  and  then  proceeds  to  the  study  of  the  constitution  which 
the  criminal  inherits.     This  we  will  now  briefly  summarize. 

The  first  series  of  the  characteristics  of  the  criminal  is  the 
anatomical.  The  study  of  383  skulls  of  criminals  gives  him  the 
results  which  he  sums  up  in  the  following  words: 

"On  considering  the  results  that  these  383  skulls  give  us 
it  is  found  that  the  lesions  most  frequent  are:  great  promi- 
nence of  the  superciliary  arches,  58.2  per  cent;  anomaly  in  the 
development  of  the  wisdom  teeth,  44.6  per  cent;  diminution 
of  the  capacity  of  the  skull,  32.5  per  cent;  synostosis  of  the 
sutures,  28.9  per  cent;  retreating  forehead,  28  per  cent;  hyper- 
ostosis of  the  bones,  28.9  per  cent;  plagiocephaly,  23.1  per 
cent;  wormian  bones,  22  per  cent;  simplicity  of  the  sutures, 
18.4  per  cent;  prominence  of  the  occipital  protuberance,  16.6 
per  cent;  the  middle  occipital  fossa,  16  per  cent;  symbolic 
sutures,  13.6  per  cent;  flattening  of  the  occipital,  13.2  per 
cent;  osteophytes  of  the  clivus,  10.1  per  cent;  the  Inca's  or 
epactal  bone,  10.5  per  cent."  ^ 

A  union  of  many  of  these  anomalies  is  to  be  found  in  the  same 
skull  in  a  proportion  of  43  per  cent,  while  21  per  cent  have 
single  anomalies.  But  these  figures  would  have  little  value  if 
not  compared  with  corresponding  figures  for  non-criminals. 
Such  a  comparison  results  in  destroying  the  significance  of  some 
of  these  anomalies,  since  they  prove  to  exist  in  about  the  same 
proportion  among  the  latter. 

"But  there  are  others,  on  the  contrary,  which  are  present 
in  a  double  or  triple  proportion  in  the  criminals.     Such  are, 

1  "Homme  Criminel,"  Paris,  1895,  I,  155. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION       xvii 

for  example,  sclerosis,  the  epactal  bone,  asymmetry,  the  re- 
treating forehead,  exaggeration  of  the  frontal  sinus  and  the 
superciliary  arches,  oxycephaly,  the  open  internasal  suture, 
anomalous  teeth,  asymmetries  of  the  face,  and  above  all  the 
middle  occipital  fossa  among  males,  the  fusion  of  the  atlas 
and  the  anomalies  of  the  occipital  opening."  ^ 

Comparison  with  the  skulls  of  the  insane  shows  that  criminals 
surpass  the  insane  in  most  of  the  cranial  anomalies.  Compari- 
son with  savage  and  pre-historic  skulls  shows  the  atavistic 
character  of  some  of  these  anomalies. 

"Atavism,  however,  does  not  permit  us  to  explain  either  the 
frequent  obliquity  of  the  skull  and  of  the  face,  or  the  fusion 
and  welding  of  the  atlas  with  the  occipital,  or  the  plagiocephaly, 
or  the  exaggerated  sclerosis,  anomalies  which  seem  to  be  the 
result  of  an  error  in  the  development  of  the  foetal  skull,  or  a 
product  of  diseases  which  have  slowly  evolved  in  the  nervous 
centers."  2 

As  to  the  significance  of  the  cranial  anomalies,  he  says: 

"Is  it  possible  that  individuals  afflicted  with  so  great  a 
number  of  alterations  should  have  the  same  sentiments  as  men 
with  a  skull  entirely  normal?  And  note  that  these  cranial 
alterations  bear  only  upon  the  most  visible  modifications  of 
the  intellectual  center,  the  alterations  of  volume  and  of  form."  ^ 

A  study  of  the  convolutions  of  the  brains  of  criminals  reveals 
many  anomalies,  of  which  he  says: 

"It  would  be  too  rash  to  conclude  that  at  last  have  been  found 
with  certainty  anomalies  peculiar  to  the  cerebral  circumvolu- 
tions of  criminals;  but  it  can  very  well  be  said  already  that  in 
criminals  these  anomalies  are  abundant  and  are  of  two  orders: 
some  which  are  different  from  every  normal  type,  even  in- 
ferior, as  the  transverse  grooves  of  the  frontal  lobe,  found  by 
Flesch  in  some  cases,  and  so  prominently  that  they  do  not 
allow  the  longitudinal  grooves  to  be  seen;  others  are  deviations 
from  the  type,  but  recall  the  type  of  lower  animals,  as  the 
separation  of  the  calcarine  fissure  from  the  occipital,  the  fissure 
of  Sylvius  which  remains  open,  the  frequent  formation  of  an 
operculum  of  the  occipital  lobe."  * 

1  Op.  cit.,  I,  161.  »  Op.  ciL,  I,  168. 

»  Op.  cit.,  I,  174.  «  Op.  cit,  I,  185. 


xviii      INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 

The  histology  of  the  criminal  brain  also  shows  many  anomalies 
due  in  most  cases  to  arrested  development.  Anomalies  of  the 
skeleton,  heart,  genital  organs,  and  stomach  are  also  noted. 

He  then  passes  to  the  study  of  the  anthropometry  and 
physiognomy  of  5907  criminals  examined  by  himself  and  about 
a  dozen  other  criminologists.  In  the  anthropometric  measure- 
ments it  may  be  noted  that  the  type  usually  reproduces  the 
regional  type,  that  the  reach  from  finger  tip  to  finger  tip  with 
the  arms  outstretched  is  usually  superior  to  the  height,  frequent 
left-handedness,  the  prehensile  foot  in  which  the  great  toe  is 
mobile  and  is  removed  an  unusually  long  distance  from  the  other 
toes,  precocious  wrinkles,  absence  of  baldness,  a  low  and  narrow 
forehead,  large  jaws,  etc.  In  the  physiognomy  he  discusses 
peculiarities  of  the  hair,  iris,  ears,  nose,  teeth,  etc.,  noting  difiFer- 
ences  between  different  kinds  of  criminals. 

"  In  general,  many  criminals  have  outstanding  ears,  abun- 
dant hair,  a  sparse  beard,  enormous  frontal  sinuses  and  jaws,  a 
square  and  projecting  chin,  broad  cheekbones,  frequent  ges- 
tures, in  fact  a  type  resembling  the  Mongolian  and  sometimes 
the  Negro."  ^ 

In  summarizing  the  anatomical  study  of  the  criminal  he  says: 

"The  study  of  the  living,  in  short,  confirms,  although  less 
exactly  and  less  constantly,  this  frequency  of  microcephalies, 
of  asymmetries,  of  oblique  orbits,  of  prognathisms,  of  frontal 
sinuses  developed  as  the  anatomical  table  has  shown  us.  It 
shows  new  analogies  between  the  insane,  savages,  and  crim- 
inals. The  prognathism,  the  hair  abundant,  black  and  friz- 
zled, the  sparse  beard,  the  skin  very  often  brown,  the  oxyce- 
phaly, the  oblique  eyes;  the  small  skull,  the  developed  jaw 
and  zygomas,  the  retreating  forehead,  the  voluminous  ears, 
the  analogy  between  the  two  sexes,  a  greater  reach,  are  new 
characteristics  added  to  the  characteristics  observed  in  the 
dead  which  bring  the  European  criminals  nearer  to  the  Aus- 
tralian and  Mongolian  type;  while  the  strabism,  the  cranial 
asymmetries  and  the  serious  histological  anomalies,  the  osteo- 
mates,  the  meningitic  lesions,  hepatic  and  cardiac,  also  show 
us  in  the  criminal  a  man  abnormal  before  his  birth,  by  arrest 
of  development  or  by  disease  acquired  from  different  organs, 

1  Op.  cit.,  I,  222. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION        xix 

above  all,  from  the  nervous  centers,  as  in  the  insane;  and  make 
him  a  person  who  is  in  truth  chronically  ill."  ^ 

The  study  of  the  anatomical  characteristics  of  the  criminal 
enabled  him  to  separate  the  born  criminal  from  the  criminal  of 
habit,  of  passion,  or  of  occasion  who  is  born  with  very  few  or  no 
abnormal  characteristics.  Leaving  aside  for  the  moment  the 
latter  classes  of  criminals  he  takes  up  the  biological  and  psy- 
chological characteristics  of  the  born  criminals,  the  first  being 
the  psychological  characteristic  of  tattooing. 

"One  of  the  most  characteristic  traits  of  primitive  man  or 
of  the  savage  is  the  facility  with  which  he  submits  himself  to 
this  operation,  surgical  rather  than  aesthetic,  and  of  which  the 
name  even  has  been  furnished  to  us  by  an  Oceanic  idiom."  ^ 

By  means  of  the  statistics  of  13,566  individuals  of  which 
4,376  were  honest,  6,347  criminal  and  2,943  insane,  he  shows 
that  tattooing  is  quite  common  in  some  of  the  inferior  classes 
of  society,  but  is  most  common  among  criminals. 

"It  may  be  said  that,  for  these  last,  it  constitutes  on  ac- 
count of  its  frequency  a  specific  and  entirely  new  anatomico- 
legal  characteristic."^  x 

He  cites  many  causes  for  tattooing,  such  as  religion,  imita-  ^ 

tion,  carnal  love,  vengeance,  idleness,  vanity,  and  above  all  S 

atavism.  ' 

"But  the  first,  the  principal  cause  which  has  spread  this 
custom  among  us,  is,  in  my  opinion,  atavism,  or  this  other  kind 
of  historic  atavism  called  tradition.  Tattooing  is  in  fact  one 
of  the  essential  characteristics  of  primitive  man  and  of  the  man 
who  is  still  Uving  in  a  savage  state."  * 

After  noting  peculiarities  of  the  molecular  exchange  as  indi- 
cated in  the  temperature,  pulse,  and  urine  he  discusses  the 
general  sensibilities  of  the  criminal. 

"The  special  taste  of  criminals  for  a  painful  operation  so 
long  and  so  full  of  danger  as  tattooing,  the  large  number  of 
wounds  their  bodies  present,  have  led  me  to  suspect  in  them 

1  Op.  cit.,  I,  262.  2  Op.  cit.,  I,  266. 

»  Op.  cU.,  I,  266.  *  Op.  cit.,  I,  295. 


V. 


XX         INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 

a  physical  insensibility  greater  than  amongst  most  men,  an 
insensibility  like  that  which  is  encountered  in  some  insane 
persons  and  especially  in  violent  lunatics."^ 

Numerous  experiments  have  revealed  obtuseness  in  the 
sensibility  of  many  parts  of  the  body.  Peculiarities  have  been 
noted  in  the  visual  acuteness  and  visual  field,  in  the  smelling, 
the  taste,  and  the  hearing,  in  the  motility,  in  the  reaction  to 
various  external  influences,  and  in  the  vaso-motor  reflexes. 

"From  all  of  these  facts  it  could  be  deduced  that  nearly 
all  the  different  kinds  of  sensibility,  tactile,  olfactory,  and  of 
the  taste,  are  obtuse  in  the  criminal ;  even  in  the  occasional  crim- 
inal as  compared  with  the  normal  man;  while  in  the  criminal 
as  in  the  insane  and  hysterical  the  sensibility  to  metals,  to  the 
magnet,  and  to  the  atmosphere  is  exaggerated.  Their  physical 
insensibility  recalls  quite  forcibly  that  of  savage  peoples,  who 
can  face,  in  the  initiations  to  puberty,  tortures  which  a  man  of 
the  white  race  could  never  endure."  ^ 

From  this  study  showing  the  marked  analgesia  of  the  criminal 
he  passes  to  his  affective  sensibility. 

"In  general,  in  criminal  man,  the  moral  insensibility  is  as 
great  as  the  physical  insensibility;  undoubtedly  the  one  is  the 
effect  of  the  other.  It  is  not  that  in  him  the  voice  of  sentiment 
is  entirely  silent,  as  some  literary  men  of  inferior  ability  sup- 
pose; but  it  is  certain  that  the  passions  which  make  the  heart 
of  the  normal  man  beat  with  the  greatest  force  are  very  feeble 
in  him.  The  first  sentiment  which  is  extinguished  in  these 
beings  is  that  of  pity  for  the  suffering  of  another,  and  this  hap- 
pens just  because  they  themselves  are  inseasible  to  suffering."  ^ 

He  then  discusses  various  psychological  characteristics  of 
the  criminal  showing  his  instability,  vanity,  lasciviousness, 
laziness,  lack  of  foresight,  etc.  He  shows  that  his  intelligence 
varies  greatly  among  the  different  classes  of  criminals.  He  dis- 
cusses at  some  length  the  argot  or  professional  slang  of  criminals. 

".Atavism  contributes  more  to  this  than  any  other  thing. 
They  talk  differently  from  us  because  they  do  not  feel  in  the 
same  way;  they  talk  like  savages  because  they  are  veritable 
savages  in  the  midst  of  this  brilliant  European  civilization."  * 

1  Op.  cU.,  I,  310.  2  Op.  cit.,  I,  346. 

»  Op.  cU.,  I,  356.  *  Op.  dt.,  I,  497. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION        xxi 

In  a  similar  manner  he  studies  the  hieroglyphics,  writing,  and 
literature  of  criminals. 

In  the  first  volume  of  this  work  Lombroso  describes  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  born  criminal  who,  as  we  shall  see,  he  believes 
represents  a  distinct  anthropological  type.  In  the  second  vol- 
ume he  takes  up  first  certain  analogies  which  he  believes  exist 
between  the  born  criminal  and  certain  other  abnormal  types, 
and  then  deals  with  the  other  classes  of  criminals.  And  first 
he  deals  with  the  analogy  and  indeed  the  identity  which  he 
believes  exists  between  congenital  criminality  and  moral 
insanity.  "The  characteristics  of  the  born  criminal  that  we 
have  studied  in  the  first  volume  are  the  same  as  those  of  the 
moral  imbecile."  ^  Under  the  name  of  moral  imbecile  psy- 
chiatrists have  classified  the  insane,  whose  most  prominent 
pathological  characteristic  is  a  complete  or  almost  complete 
absence  of  moral  feeling  and  of  moral  ideas.  The  famous  Eng- 
lish alienist,  Henry  Maudsley,  has  described  this  class  in  the 
following  words: 

"Notwithstanding  prejudices  to  the  contrary,  there  is  a  dis- 
order of  the  mind,  in  which,  without  illusion,  delusion,  or  hal- 
lucination, the  symptoms  are  mainly  exhibited  in  a  perversion 
of  those  mental  faculties  which  are  usually  called  the  active 
and  moral  powers  —  the  feeling,  affection,  propensities,  tem- 
per, habits,  and  conduct.  The  affective  fife  of  the  individual 
is  profoundly  deranged,  and  his  derangement  shows  itself  in 
what  he  feels,  desires,  and  does.  He  has  no  capacity  of  true 
moral  feeling;  all  his  impulses  and  desires,  to  which  he  yields 
without  check,  are  egoistic;  his  conduct  appears  to  be  governed 
by  immoral  motives,  which  are  cherished  and  obeyed  without 
any  evident  desire  to  resist  them.  There  is  an  amazing  moral 
insensibility.  The  intelligence  is  often  acute  enough,  being 
not  affected  otherwise  than  in  being  tainted  by  the  morbid 
feeling  under  the  influence  of  which  the  persons  think  and  act; 
indeed  they  often  display  an  extraordinary  ingenuity  in  ex- 
plaining, excusing,  or  justifying  their  behaviour,  exaggerating 
this,  ignoring  that,  and  so  coloring  the  whole  as  to  make  them- 
selves appear  the  victims  of  misrepresentation  and  persecu- 
tion." 2 

1  Op.  cit.,  II,  1. 

2  "Responsibility  in  Mental  Disease,"  London,  1874, 171-172. 


xxii       INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 
Such  a  person  may  very  easily  become  a  criminal. 

"A  person  who  has  no  moral  sense  is  naturally  well  fitted  to 
become  a  criminal,  and  if  his  intellect  is  not  strong  enough  to 
convince  him  that  crime  will  not  in  the  end  succeed,  and  that 
it  is,  therefore,  on  the  lowest  grounds  a  folly,  he  is  very  likely 
to  become  one."  ^ 

Moral  insanity  may  be  caused  by  various  abnormal  or  patho- 
logical mental  characteristics,  congenital  or  acquired  in  the 
individual.  Whenever  one  of  these  characteristics  destroys  the 
capacity  for  moral  feeling  and  for  comprehending  moral  ideas 
the  individual  becomes  a  moral  imbecile.  Moral  insanity, 
therefore,  is  not  a  morbid  entity  in  the  sense  that  it  arises  out 
of  one  pathological  mental  characteristic  or  state  of  mind.  It 
is,  on  the  contrary,  as  Baer  has  said,  a  symptom  common  to 
various  cerebral  diseases.  Lombroso,  however,  apparently  re- 
garded it  as  such  an  entity,  for  he  frequently  spoke  of  it  as  if 
it  were  a  distinct  disease,  and,  furthermore,  he  identified  it 
with  the  born  criminal  whom  he  considered  a  distinct  type.  He 
cites  a  good  deal  of  evidence  in  support  of  this  identification. 

"One  of  the  things  which  prove  indirectly  the  identity  of 
moral  insanity  and  of  crime,  and  which  at  the  same  time  ex- 
plains to  us  the  doubts  with  which  the  alienists  have  been  pos- 
sessed up  to  this  day,  is  the  extreme  rarity  of  the  first  in  the 
insane  asylums,  and  its  great  frequency,  on  the  contrary,  in 
the  prisons."  ^ 

After  supporting  this  statement  with  statistics  he  demon- 
strates many  likenesses  between  the  moral  imbecile  and  the 
born  criminal,  with  regard  to  the  weight,  the  skull,  the  physi- 
ognomy, the  analgesia,  tactile  sensibility,  tattooing,  vascular 
reaction,  affectibility,  etc.  By  contending  that  there  is  an 
identity  between  the  moral  imbecile  and  the  born  criminal,  he 
does  not,  however,  mean  that  every  moral  imbecile  is  a  criminal. 
For  that  matter  not  every  person  born  with  a  criminal  tempera- 
ment becomes  a  criminal,  for  external  circumstances  may  resist 
and  overcome  the  innate  criminal  tendencies.    But  he  believes 

1  Maudsley,  Op.  dt.,  58.  •  Op.  cU.,  II,  3-4. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION      xxiii 

that  in  physical  constitution  and  mental  characteristics  the  two 
are  fundamentally  aUke. 

This  identity  of  the  moral  imbecile  with  the  bom  criminal 
is,  he  believes,  still  more  conclusively  proved  by  a  similar  like- 
ness which  he  finds  between  the  criminal  and  the  epileptic. 

"The  objection  has  justly  been  made  against  this  fusion 
that  the  cases  of  true  moral  insanity  that  I  have  been  able  to 
study  are  too  restrictive  in  number.  That  is  true;  but  it  is 
after  all  very  natural;  for,  precisely  because  moral  imbeciles 
are  born  criminals,  they  are  not  found  as  frequently  in  the 
asylum  as  in  the  prison;  and  it  is  also  for  that  reason  that  it  is  not 
easy  to  establish  a  comparison.  But  there  exists  in  epilepsy 
a  uniting  bond  much  more  important,  much  more  comprehen- 
sible, which  can  be  studied  upon  a  great  scale,  that  unites  and 
bases  the  moral  imbecile  and  the  born  criminal  in  the  same 
natural  family."  ^ 

As  in  the  case  of  the  analogy  between  the  moral  imbecile  and 
the  born  criminal  he  demonstrates  many  likenesses  between  the 
epileptic  and  the  born  criminal,  in  height,  weight,  the  brain, 
the  skull,  the  physiognomy,  the  flat  and  prehensile  foot,  the 
sensibility,  the  visual  field,  motility,  tattooing,  etc. 

"Criminality  is  therefore  an  atavistic  phenonenon  which  is 
provoked  by  morbid  causes  of  which  the  fundamental  mani- 
festation is  epilepsy.  It  is  very  true  that  criminality  can  be 
provoked  by  other  diseases  (hysteria,  alchoholism,  paralysis, 
insanity,  phrenastenia,  etc.),  but  it  is  epilepsy  which  gives  to  it, 
by  its  frequency,  by  its  gravity,  the  most  extended  basis."  ^ 

But  while  all  born  criminals  are  epileptics,  according  to 
Lombroso,  not  all  epileptics  are  born  criminals.  In  all  three, 
congenital  criminality,  moral  insanity,  and  epilepsy,  we  find  the 
irresistible  force  which  results  in  crime  or  similar  irresponsible 
acts. 

"The  perversion  of  the  affective  sphere,  the  hate,  exagger- 
ated and  without  motive,  the  absence  or  insufficiency  of  all 
restraint,  the  multiple  hereditary  tendencies,  are  the  source  of 
irresistible  impulses  in  the  moral  imbecile  as  well  as  in  the  bom 
criminal  and  the  epileptic."^ 

1  Op.  cit.,  II,  49-50.  *  Op.  cit.,  II,  120.  »  Op.  cit.,  II,  125. 


xxiv      INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 

These  two  analogies  between  the  born  criminal  and  the  moral 
imbecile  and  the  epileptic  mark  the  second  stage  in  the  develop- 
ment of  his  theory. 

"The  studies  which  form  the  first  part  of  this  volume  accord 
admirably  with  those  which  have  been  developed  in  the  second 
and  third  parts  of  the  first  volume  to  make  us  see  in  the  crimi- 
nal a  savage  and  at  the  same  time  a  sick  man."  ^ 

In  other  words,  he  no  longer  sees  in  the  born  criminal 
only  an  atavistic  return  to  the  savage,  but  also  arrested  de- 
velopment and  disease,  thus  making  the  born  criminal  both 
an  atavistic  and  a  degenerate  phenomenon. 

He  now  passes  to  the  treatment  of  the  classes  of  criminals 
other  than  the  bom  criminal.  The  first  of  these  is  the  criminal 
by  passion. 

"Among  the  criminals  there  is  a  category  which  is  distin- 
guished absolutely  from  all  others;  it  is  this  of  the  criminals 
by  passion,  who  ought  rather  to  be  called  criminals  by  violence, 
because  as  we  have  seen,  and  as  we  shall  see  better  still  in  their 
aetiology,  all  these  crimes  have  for  substratum  the  violence  of 
some  passion."  2 

These  criminals  are  quite  rare,  are  usually  young,  have  few 
anomahes  of  the  skull,  a  good  physiognomy,  honesty  of  char- 
acter, exaggerated  affectibility  as  opposed  to  the  apathy  of  the 
born  criminal,  and  frequent  repentance  after  the  crime,  some- 
times followed  by  suicide  or  reformation  in  prison.  A  larger 
percentage  of  them  are  women  than  among  other  criminals. 

"The  passions  which  excite  these  criminals  are  not  those 
which  rise  gradually  in  the  organism,  as  avarice  and  ambition, 
but  those  which  burst  forth  unexpectedly,  as  anger,  platonic  or 
filial  love,  offended  honor;  which  are  usually  generous  passions 
and  often  sublime.  On  the  other  hand,  those  which  predom- 
inate in  ordinary  criminals  are  the  most  ignoble  and  the  most 
ferocious,  as  vengeance,  cupidity,  carnal  love,  and  drunken- 
ness." 3 

But  in  them  as  in  ordinary  criminals  are  found  sometimes 
traces  of  epilepsy  and  impulsive  insanity,  shown  by  the  impetu- 

1  Op.  cit.,  II,  135.  2  Op.  cit.,  II,  153.  »  Op.  cit.,  II,  165-166. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION       xxv 

osity,  suddenness,  and  ferocity  of  their  crimes.  The  frequency 
of  suicide  among  criminals  by  passion  also  indicates  a  patho- 
logical state  of  mind. 

A  special  kind  of  criminal  by  passion  is  the  political  criminal. 

"In  nearly  all  political  criminals  by  passion  we  have  noticed 
an  exaggerated  sensibility,  a  veritable  hyperesthesia,  as  in  the 
ordinary  criminals  by  passion;  but  a  powerful  intellect,  a 
great  altruism  pushed  them  towards  ends  much  higher  than 
those  of  the  latter:  it  is  never  wealth,  vanity,  the  smile  of 
woman  (even  though  often  eroticism  is  not  lacking  in  them,  as 
in  Garibaldi,  Mazzini,  Cavour)  which  impel  them,  but  rather 
the  great  patriotic,  religious,  scientific  ideals."  ^ 

Statistics  show  a  much  higher  proportion  than  the  average  of 
insane  persons  among  criminals,  and  therefore  Lombroso  deals 
next  with  insane  criminals  as  a  special  class  of  criminals. 

"A  study  made  upon  one  hundred  insane  criminals,  chosen 
by  preference  from  those  who  had  become  insane  before  the 
crime,  with  the  exception  of  the  epileptics,  has  shown  to  me 
the  frequency  of  the  criminal  type  (that  is  to  say,  the  presence 
of  five  to  six  characteristics  of  degeneracy,  and  especially  out- 
standing ears  {oreilles  a  anse),  frontal  sinuses,  a  voluminous 
jaw  and  zygoma,  a  ferocious  look  or  strabism,  a  thin  upper  lip) 
in  the  proportion  of  44  per  cent."  ^ 

This  fact,  however,  does  not  lead  him  to  identify  the  insane 
criminal  with  the  born  criminal,  but  he  finds  numerous  analogies 
between  the  two  in  the  weight,  height,  skull,  tattooing,  etc.,  and 
also  many  psychological  analogies  in  the  manner  of  committing 
a  crime.  He  connects  certain  kinds  of  crime  with  certain  kinds 
of  insanity. 

"I  have  just  mentioned  the  existence  of  certain  kinds  of 
insanity  which  reproduce  each  of  the  sub-species  of  criminality, 
so  that  to  the  juridical  figure  of  incendiarism,  of  homicide,  can 
be  opposed  the  psychiatric  figure  of  pyromania,  homicidal  mo- 
nomania, paradoxical  sexuality,  etc."  ^ 

Thus  he  opposes  to  the  juridical  figure  of  theft  the  psychiatric 
figure  of  kleptomania;    to  habitual  drunkenness,  dipsomania: 

1  Op.  cit.,  II,  217.  2  Op.  cit.,  II,  254  »  Op.  cU.,  II,  290. 


xxvi      INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 

to  rape  and  pederasty,  sexual  inversion;  to  crimes  of  lust, 
satyriasis  and  nymphomania;  to  idleness  and  vagabondage, 
neurasthenia.  He  then  discusses  the  psychological  differences 
between  the  born  criminal  and  the  insane  criminal  with  respect 
to  the  different  kinds  of  mental  maladies,  and  to  the  differences 
in  motives  for  crimes  and  in  the  manner  of  committing  them. 
He  finishes  the  study  of  the  insane  criminal  with  the  study  of 
three  special  kinds,  —  the  alcoholic  criminal,  the  hysterical 
criminal,  and  the  criminal  mattoid. 

The  last  part  of  his  work  is  devoted  to  the  occasional 
criminal.    Of  this  study  he  says: 

"  If  I  have  been  forced  to  delay  for  several  years  the  publica- 
tion of  this  book,  it  has  been  on  account  of  this  part  in  particu- 
lar; for,  although  in  possession  of  numerous  documents,  direct 
contact  with  the  facts  failed  me  in  the  measure  that  I  was  trying 
to  approach  myself  to  them.  The  abundance  of  the  facts  also, 
their  excessive  variety,  constituted  for  me  a  cause  of  uncertainty 
which  prevented  me  from  reaching  a  conclusion."  ^ 

The  first  group  with  which  he  deals  is  that  of  the  pseudo- 
criminals.  These  criminals  are  those  who  commit  crimes 
involuntarily,  who  commit  acts  which  are  not  perverse  or  pre- 
judicial to  society  but  which  are  called  crimes  by  the  law,  who 
commit  crimes  under  very  extraordinary  circumstances,  such 
as  in  defense  of  the  person,  of  honor,  or  for  the  sustenance  of 
the  family.  These  crimes  are  "  rather  juridical  than  real, because 
they  are  created  by  imperfections  of  the  law  rather  than  by 
those  of  men;  they  do  not  awaken  any  fear  for  the  future, 
and  they  do  not  disturb  the  moral  sense  of  the  masses."  ^ 

The  next  group  is  that  of  the  criminaloids.  "Here  the  acci- 
dent, the  all-powerful  occasion,  draws  only  those  who  are  already 
somewhat  predisposed  to  evil."  ^  The  occasions  out  of  which 
these  crimes  arise  are  the  temptation  to  imitate,  the  constant 
opportunities  offered  by  the  commercial  profession  for  fraud, 
abuse  of  confidence,  etc.,  the  associations  of  the  prison,  a  passion 
less  intense  than  in  the  criminal  by  passion  which  draws  an 
honest  man  slowly  to  crime,  the  criminal  couple,  the  stronger 

1  Op.  cU.,  II,  463.  2  Op.  cit.,  II,  484.  »  Op.  dt.,  II,  485. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION     xxvii 

member  of  which  having  evil  tendencies  perverts  the  weaker, 
epidemic  allurement,  etc. 

"These  are  individuals  who  constitute  the  gradations  between 
the  born  criminal  and  the  honest  man,  or,  better  still,  a  variety 
of  born  criminal  who  has  indeed  a  special  organic  tendency 
but  one  which  is  less  intense,  who  has  therefore  only  a  touch  of 
degeneracy;  that  is  why  I  will  call  them  criminaloids.  But  it  is 
natural  that  in  them  the  importance  of  the  occasion  determining 
the  crime  should  be  decisive,  while  it  is  not  so  for  the  born 
criminal,  for  whom  it  is  a  circumstance  with  which  he  can  dis- 
pense and  with  which  he  often  does  dispense,  as,  for  example, 
in  cases  of  brutal  mischievousness."  ^ 

This  position  of  the  criminaloid  between  the  born  criminal 
and  the  honest  man  is  in  harmony  with  all  natural  phenomena, 
"where  the  most  striking  phenomena  are  in  continuity  with  a 
series  of  analogous  phenomena  less  accentuated  ";  ^  just  as  in 
the  moral  sphere  we  have  genius,  talent,  intelligence,  etc.,  and 
in  the  pathology  of  degeneracy  the  cretin,  the  cretinous,  the 
sub-cretin,  the  idiot,  the  mattoid,  the  imbecile,  etc. 

The  third  group  of  occasional  criminals  is  that  of  the  habitual 
criminal. 

"The  greatest  number  of  these  individuals  is  furnished  by 
those  who  —  normal  from  birth  and  without  tendencies  for 
a  peculiar  constitution  for  crime  —  not  having  found  in  the 
early  education  of  parents,  schools,  etc.,  this  force  which  pro- 
vokes, or,  better  said,  facilitates  the  passage  from  this  physio- 
logical criminality  —  which  we  have  seen  belongs  properly  to 
an  early  age  —  to  a  normal,  honest  life,  fall  continually  lower 
into  the  primitive  tendency  towards  evil."^ 

So  that  these  individuals  without  an  abnormal  heredity  are 
led  not  by  one  circumstance  offering  the  occasion  for  crime,  but 
by  a  group  of  circumstances  conditioning  their  early  life  into  a 
career  of  crime. 

Associations  of  criminals,  such  as  those  of  brigands,  mafia,  and 
camorra  in  Italy,  and  the  "black  hand"  in  Spain,  etc.,  contain 
many  members  drawn  into  crime  by  their  associates.  In  the 
classes  in  which  on  account  of  wealth,  power,  etc.,  the  condi- 

1  Op.  cit.,  II,  512.  2  Op.  cit.,  II,  513.  '  Op.  cit.,  II,  534. 


xxviii    INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 

tions  are  against  the  commission  of  crime,  the  criminal  tendencies 
of  those  born  with  such  tendencies  remain  latent  or  manifest 
themselves  in  other  ways.  Finally,  there  is  a  class  of  epileptoids 
in  whom  there  is  a  substratum  of  epilepsy  which  sometimes 
forms  the  basis  for  the  development  of  criminal  tendencies. 

In  the  first  edition  of  his  work  Lombroso  gave  excessive 
weight  to  his  anatomical  and  anthropometric  data  which  was 
not  very  surprising,  since  they  were  the  most  obvious  and  the 
most  easily  obtainable.  This  excessive  emphasis  laid  upon  the 
anatomical  characteristics  of  the  criminal  led  him  to  distin- 
guish but  one  type,  —  the  criminal  as  an  atavistic  phenomenon. 
This  immediately  called  forth  the  charge  of  unilaterality.  The 
idea  still  exists  that  Lombroso  recognized  but  one  type  of 
criminal  who  is  the  result  of  a  single  cause,  namely,  atavism. 
But  the  brief  summary  of  his  work  which  I  have  so  far  given 
is  sufficient  to  disprove  this.  We  have  seen  that  in  addition  to 
studying  the  anatomical  characterictics  of  the  criminal  he  makes 
a  lengthy  study  of  his  biological  and  psychological  characteristics 
as  well.  In  the  later  editions  of  his  work  he  rejected  in  part  the 
atavistic  theory  of  crime,  no  longer  considering  atavism  as  the 
only  cause  of  crime,  and  adopted  the  theory  of  degeneracy  as 
one  of  its  causes. 

"In  this  edition  I  have  demonstrated  that  in  addition  to  the 
characteristics  truly  atavistic  there  are  acquired  and  entirely 
pathological  characteristics;  facial  asymmetry,  for  example, 
which  does  not  exist  in  the  savage,  strabism,  inequality  of  the 
ears,  dischromatopsy,  unilateral  paresia,  irresistible  impulses, 
the  need  of  doing  evil  for  the  sake  of  evil,  etc.,  and  this  sinister 
gayety  which  is  noticeable  in  the  professional  slang  of  criminals 
and  which,  alternating  with  a  certain  religiousness,  is  found  so 
often  in  epileptics.  There  may  be  added  meningitis  and  soften- 
ing of  the  brain,  which  certainly  do  not  result  from  atavism."  ^ 

In  his  studies  of  moral  imbecility  and  epilepsy  he  has  dem- 
onstrated the  analogies  between  these  two  and  congenital  crim- 
inality. Though  his  identification  of  the  moral  imbecile  with 
the  born  criminal  and  of  the  born  criminal  with  the  epileptic 
may  be  disproved,  his  demonstration  of  the  pathological  like- 

*  Op.  dt.,  I,  xi-xii. 


J 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION      xxix 

nesses  of  the  three  to  each  other  is  incontestible.  In  his  study 
of  the  insane  criminal  he  has  exposed  the  characteristics  of 
another  very  abnormal  criminal  type.  He  has  demonstrated 
the  abnormality  of  certain  of  the  criminals  by  passion.  In  the 
criminaloid  he  has  shown  a  criminal  partially  abnormal,  who, 
however,  will  not  commit  a  crime  until  a  good  opportunity  pre- 
sents itself.  The  habitual  criminal,  though  born  without  criminal 
tendencies,  has  them  developed  in  him  by  the  circumstances  of 
his  early  life.  Finally,  in  some  of  the  criminals  by  passion  and 
in  the  pseudo-criminal  we  find  entirely  normal  persons  who 
have  committed  crimes  under  very  exceptional  circumstances. 
Thus  we  see  how  very  synthetic  is  his  study  of  the  characteristics 
of  the  criminal,  since  it  ranges  from  the  most  abnormal  to  the 
perfectly  normal,  and  there  borders  upon  the  study  of  the  social 
causes  of  crime,  which  he  takes  up  at  great  length  in  the  work  of 
which  the  present  volume  is  a  translation. 

The  theory  which  is  most  closely  connected  with  the  name 
of  Lombroso  is  that  of  the  criminal  anthropological  type,  that 
is  to  say,  his  theory  that  there  is  an  anthropological  type 
which  corresponds  to  habitual  criminal  conduct.  This  has  been 
the  most  contested  idea  in  criminal  anthropology  and  the  one 
that  has  received  the  largest  amount  of  discussion  in  books, 
congresses,  etc.  Though  this  idea  of  a  criminal  type  had  been 
suggested  several  times  in  the  past,  it  was  fully  developed  for 
the  first  time  by  Lombroso.  We  have  already  summarized  his 
conception  of  the  born  criminal  who  constitutes  for  him  a  dis- 
tinct criminal  type.  A  quotation  from  his  speech  at  the  Congress 
of  Criminal  Anthropology  at  Turin  in  1906  has  shown  that 
his  early  studies  led  him  to  regard  the  criminal  as  an  atavis- 
tic type,  as  reproducing  the  characteristics  of  lower  races  and 
species.  This  theory,  offered  in  his  early  works  as  an  explana- 
tion of  congenital  criminal  tendencies,  was  severely  attacked  on 
account  of  its  unilaterality.  These  criticisms  and  his  further 
researches  led  him,  as  we  have  seen,  to  modify  his  theory  and 
to  recognize  degeneracy  as  the  cause  of  congenital  criminality. 
He  even  came  to  regard  atavism  as  a  form  of  degeneracy,  as 
where  he  speaks  of  the  criminal  type  as  "the  presence  of  five 

»  Op.  cU.,  II,  254. 


XXX       INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 

or  six  characteristics  of  degeneracy  and  especially:  outstanding 
ears  (oreilles  a  anse),  frontal  sinuses,  jaw  and  zygomas  volu- 
minous, a  ferocious  look  or  strabism,  thin  upper  lip."  ^  This 
recognition  of  degeneracy  as  a  cause  of  crime  has  made  Lom- 
broso's  doctrine  more  catholic,  so  that  it  is  much  easier  to  con- 
nect the  criminal  with  the  social  and  physical  conditions  out 
of  which  he  has  evolved,  but  it  is  questionable,  as  we  shall  see, 
whether  degeneracy  can  be  regarded  as  a  form  of  atavism. 

In  order  to  make  more  distinct  his  conception  of  the  criminal 
type  he  discusses  the  character  of  a  type  in  general,  as  follows : 

"In  my  opinion,  one  should  receive  the  type  with  the  same 
reserve  that  one  uses  in  estimating  the  value  of  averages  in  sta- 
tistics. When  one  says  that  the  average  life  is  thirty-two  years 
and  that  the  most  fatal  month  is  December,  no  one  under- 
stands by  that  that  everybody  must  die  at  thirty-two  years  and 
in  the  month  of  December."  ^ 

The  type  is,  therefore,  an  abstract  conception  including  the 
characteristics  which  are  most  common  in  a  certain  group  of 
individuals.  But  this  does  not  mean  that  every  individual  in 
the  group  must  have  all  these  characteristics.  As  Isidore  G. 
Saint-Hilaire  has  said: 

"The  type  is  a  sort  of  fixed  point  and  common  centre  about 
which  the  differences  presented  are  like  so  many  deviations  in 
different  directions  and  oscillations  varied  almost  indefinitely, 
about  which  nature  seems  to  play,  as  the  anatomists  used  to 

say."  2 

Applying  this  general  conception  of  a  type,  it  is  evident  that 
every  criminal  representing  this  type  need  not  have  all  its 
characteristics.  In  fact,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  one  criminal  ever 
did  have  all  these  characteristics. 

Furthermore,  he  discusses  what  percentage  of  criminals  rep- 
resent the  criminal  type.  This  number  he  places  at  about  40 
per  cent.  The  objection  has  been  made  that  it  is  impossible 
to  talk  about  a  criminal  type  when  60  per  cent  of  the  criminals 
do  not  represent  it,  to  which  he  replies  as  follows: 

1  Op.  cit.,  I,  Lx.  *  Quoted  in  Lombroso,  op.  cit.,  I,  237. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION      xxxi 

"But,  in  addition  to  the  fact  that  the  figure  of  40  per  cent 
is  not  to  be  disdained,  the  .  .  .  insensible  passage  from  one 
character  to  another  manifests  itself  in  all  organic  beings;  it 
manifests  itself  even  from  one  species  to  another;  with  more 
reason  is  it  so  in  the  anthropological  field,  where  the  individual 
variabihty,  increasing  in  direct  proportion  to  improvement  and 
to  civilization,  seems  to  efface  the  complete  type."  ^ 

We  can  give  no  more  space  to  this  summary  of  Lombroso's 
theory,  but  must  now  make  certain  comments  and  criticisms. 
Strange  to  say,  Lombroso  seems  to  have  been  sor"^^^^''^^  ^g^orff^t 
of  biology,  and  especially  of  the  theory  of  heredity.  This  is 
indicated,  for  example,  by  the  loose  way  IBi  which  lie  uses  the 
term  "atavism."  It  is  true  that  biologists  recognize  that 
atavism,  or  reversion,  as  they  usually  call  it,  takes  place  when 
there  reappear  in  an  individual  of  the  present  day  character- 
istics of  earlier  types,  if  this  reappearance  is  the  result  of  he- 
reditary forces.  That  is  to  say,  if  earlier  characteristics  which 
have  long  remained  dormant  reassert  themselves  in  the  germ 
plasm  at  the  time  of  conception  there  is  a  true  case  of  reversion. 
But  it  is  very  evident  that  many  of  the  criminal  characteristics 
which  Lombroso  calls  atavistic  are  not  hereditary  in  their  origin^ 
but  are  cases  of  arrested  development  either  pefore  orafter 


birth.  This  is  the  case  when  he  speaks  of  degeneracy  as  a  form 
of  atavism,  for  it  is  very  evident  that  most  if  not  all  the  charr 
acteristics  he  has  in  mind  are  not  congenital.  The  fact  that  the 
individual  has  them  at  birth  does  not  indicate  necessarily  that 
they  are  congenital,  for  they  may  be  the  result  of  arrested  devel- 
opment during  the  ante-natal  period  of  the  life  of  the  individual. 
In  other  cases  he  calls  characteristics  atavistic  which  are  simply 
habits  which  have  been  transmitted  by  social  means. •  For  ex- 
ample, he  seems  to  regard  the  habit  of  tattooing  as  an  atavistic 
trait,  but  tattooing  is  no  more  than  a  habit,  which  could  not 
possibly  be  transmitted  by  hereditary  means.  This  indicates 
that  Lombroso  may  have  believed  in  the  hereditary  transmis- 
sion of  acquired  characteristics,  though  he  nowhere  explicitly 
states  his  opinion  as  to  this  point.  But  he  again  and  again 
speaks  as  if  habits  or  the  effects  of  habits  are  transmitted  by 

1  Op.  cit.,  I,  ix. 


xxxii     INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 

hereditary  means.  The  consensus  of  opinion  of  biologists 
to-day  is  that  no  acquired  characteristics  can  be  transmitted 
by  hereditary  means,  therefore  Lombroso  was  very  much  in 
error  in  this  respect. 

Lombroso  beheved  that  there  is  a  criminal  anthropological 
type,  or  rather  that  there  are  several  such  types  which  corre- 
spond to  habitual  modes  of  criminal  conduct.  Here  again  he 
seems  to  be  holding  the  belief  that  acquired  characteristics  are 
inheritable,  for  otherwise  it  is  inconceivable  that  any  anthropo- 
logical type  necessarily  possesses  certain  habits.  Such  a  type 
may  possess  congenital  tendencies  which  make  it  more  likely  to 
acquire  certain  habits,  but  this  is  not  necessarily  the  case^  It  is 
true  that  Lombroso  recognized  that  environmental  forces  might 
prevent  the  individual  from  expressing  these  inborn  tendencies 
to  certain  kinds  of  action  in  acts.  But  he  laid  too  much  emphasis 
upon  the  extent  to  which  the  habits  of  a  person  are  determined 
by  hereditary  forces.  ^ 

But  whatever  may  have  been  his  faults,  Lombroso  was  the 
great  pioneer  whose  original  and  versatile  genius  and  aggressive 
personality  led  in  the  great  movement  towards  the  application 
of  the  positive,  inductive  methods  of  modern  science  to  the 
problem  of  crime,  and  who  stimulated,  more  than  any  other 
man,  the  development  of  the  new  science  of  criminology^.  The 
breadth  of  his  treatment  of  the  subject  of  crime  is  nowhere 
illustrated  better  than  in  the  present  volume,  in  which  a  large 
number  of  the  complex  causes  of  crime  are  discussed.  It  is 
therefore  to  be  hoped  that  through  this  volume  the  English- 
speaking  world  will  acquire  an  adequate  idea  of  his  genius 
and  of  the  great  services  he  rendered  to  the  study  and  treat- 
ment of  crime.  ^ 

•Maurice  Parmelee. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

To  Max  Nordau. 

TO  you,  as  the  ablest  and  best  beloved  of  my  brothers  in 
arms,  I  dedicate  this  book.  In  it  I  attempt  by  means  of 
facts  to  answer  those  who,  not  having  read  my  "Criminal  Man" 
(of  which  it  is  the  necessary  complement),  nor  the  works  of 
Pelmann,  Kurella,  Van  Hamel,  Salillas,  Ellis,  Bleuler,  and 
others,  accuse  my  school  of  having  neglected  the  economic  and 
social  causes  of  crime,  and  of  having  confined  itself  to  the  study 
of  the  born  criminal,  thus  teaching  that  the  criminal  is  riveted 
irrevocably  to  his  destiny,  and  that  humanity  has  no  escape 
from  his  atavistic  ferocity. 

Now,  if  this  charge  were  true,  the  unfortunate  nature  of  the 
facts  revealed  could  not  be  urged  against  the  school  which  dis- 
covered them.  But  the  truth  is  that,  while  the  old  jurists  had 
nothing  to  propose  for  the  prevention  of  crime  more  efficacious 
than  the  cruel  and  sterile  empiricism  of  the  prison  and  deporta- 
tion system,  and  while  the  most  practical  peoples  have  arrived 
at  good  results  only  sporadically  and  as  the  chance  outcome  of 
unsystematic  gropings,  my  school  has  devised  a  new  strategic 
method  of  proceeding  against  crime,  based  upon  a  study  of  its 
aetiology  and  nature. 

In  the  first  place,  the  distinction  which  we  have  made  be- 
tween the  criminaloid,  the  occasional  criminal,  the  criminal  by 
passion,  and  the  born  criminal,  as  well  as  the  study  of  the  more 
important  causes  of  crime,  enables  us  to  determine  with  precision 
the  individuals  to  whom  we  can  apply  our  curative  processes, 
and  the  method  appropriate  to  each  case. 

With  the  born  criminal,  to  be  sure,  only  a  palliative  treatment 
is  possible.  This  is  what  I  have  called  "symbiosis,"  the  attempt 
to  utilize  the  criminal's  evil  propensities  by  diverting  the  course 
of  the  criminal  instinct.  The  measures  for  the  attainment  of 
this  object,  however,  can  only  be  individual. 


xxxiv  THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

But  with  criminaloids/  whose  evil  propensities  are  not  so 
deep  seated,  we  may  often  hope  for  better  results.  Here  again 
it  is  necessary  to  commence  the  treatment  in  early  youth  by 
what  I  should  call  moral  nurture,  which  would  withdraw  the 
young  criminals  from  the  influence  of  depraved  parents  and 
from  that  of  the  streets,  and  place  them  on  farms  and  in  the 
colonies. 

In  this  matter  legislation  and  social  influences  are  of  great 
importance.  Thus  emigration  from  overpopulated  countries 
toward  those  less  thickly  settled  wards  off  one  of  the  worst 
influences,  that  of  a  dense  population;  divorce  prevents  adul- 
teries, poisonings,  etc.;  while  the  war  made  upon  drunkenness 
by  religious  associations  and  temperance  societies,  and  through 
the  enforcement  of  penalties,  prevents  much  brawling  and  vio- 
lence.   All  this  has  been  established  by  statistics. 

These  directly  preventive  measures,  it  is  true,  do  not  always 
suflSce.  Since  it  is  a  need  of  cerebral  stimulation  that  leads 
men  to  drinlc,  and  since  this  need  grows  with  the  progress  of 
civilization,  it  is  necessary  to  get  at  the  root  of  the  evil,  and 
satisfy  this  need  by  means  less  dangerous  than  drink,  such  as 
shows,  coffee-rooms,  etc. 

But  here  another  difficulty  arises;  namely,  that  nearly  all 
the  physical  and  moral  causes  of  crime  present  a  double  aspect, 
often  contradictory.  Thus  there  are  crimes  which  are  favored 
by  density  of  population,  like  rebellion;  and  others,  like  brig- 
andage and  homicide,  which  are  occasioned  by  sparseness  of 
population.  So  also  while  there  are  crimes  caused  by  poverty, 
there  are  almost  as  many  which  are  encouraged  by  extreme 
wealth.  The  same  contradiction  is  observed  when  we  pass  from 
one  country  to  another.  Thus,  while  homicide  decreases  in 
Italy  with  the  increase  of  population  and  wealth,  in  France  this 
crime  increases  with  the  increase  of  these  two  factors,  —  a  fact 
which  is  to  be  explained  by  the  great  influence  of  alcoholism 
and  of  foreign  immigration.^ 

Religion,  which  among  Protestants  appears  to  prevent  many 
crimes,  in  many  Catholic  countries  multiplies  them,  or  at  least 

'  See  my  "Homme  Criminel,"  II,  485-539. 

*  See  sections  31,  54,  and  60  of  the  present  work. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE  xxxv 

fails  to  prevent  their  increase.  And  if  education  appears  to  be 
useful  in  preventing  homicide,  theft,  assault,  etc.,  it  very  often, 
when  too  advanced,  seems  to  encourage  fraud,  false  testimony, 
and  political  crime.^ 

The  difficulty  is  increased  still  more  by  the  fact  that,  even  if 
we  find  effective  methods  of  combating  the  influence  of  environ- 
ment, it  is  not  easy  to  apply  them.  It  is  possible,  for  example, 
to  counteract  the  effect  of  heat  upon  the  frequency  of  crimes 
of  violence  and  immorality,  by  means  of  cold  baths;  but  it  is 
not  easy  to  bring  a  whole  section  of  the  people  to  the  bath- 
houses or  to  the  sea,  as  was  done  in  ancient  Rome,  and  as  the 
practice  still  is  in  Calabria. 

The  statesman,  then,  who  wishes  to  prevent  crime  ought  to 
be  eclectic  and  not  limit  himself  to  a  single  course  of  action. 
He  must  guard  against  the  dangerous  effects  of  wealth  no  less 
than  against  those  of  poverty,  against  the  corrupting  influence 
of  education  not  less  than  against  that  of  ignorance.  In  this 
labyrinth  of  contradictions  the  only  safe  guide  is  the  study 
of  the  criminal  combined  with  the  study  of  the  aetiology  of 
crime. 

From  all  this  we  can  understand  the  uncertainty  and  embar- 
rassment to  which  these  contradictions  expose  our  public  offi- 
cials, and  can  see  why  men  whose  trade  is  law-making  find 
that  their  most  obvious  recourse  is  the  modification  of  a  few 
pages  of  the  penal  code.  This  is  why  the  prison,  the  worst  of 
all  remedies  (if  we  can  call  it  a  remedy  at  all,  and  not  a  poison), 
will  always  be  applied  as  the  simplest  and  most  practical  means 
of  safety.  It  has  antiquity  and  custom  on  its  side,  and  these 
are  points  of  great  importance  for  the  ordinary  man,  who  finds 
it  easier  always  to  apply  the  same  remedy  than  to  find  a  num- 
ber of  different  remedies  suited  to  differences  of  age,  sex,  and 
education. 

I  have  traced  above  only  the  outlines  of  the  system  of  crimi- 
nal therapeutics  which  I  intend  to  set  forth  in  this  book.  But, 
to  tell  the  truth,  it  is  not  a  system  that  is  entirely  new. 

It  has  been  stated  that  certain  practical  nations,  less  smoth- 

^  See  sections  51,  52,  and  160  of  the  present  work. 


xxxvi  THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

ered  than  our  own  under  a  too  glorious  past,  and  for  that  reason 
less  infatuated  with  the  ancient  codes,  have  already  here  and 
there  arrived  empirically,  without  knowing  a  word  of  criminal 
anthropology,  at  several  of  the  reforms  that  I  shall  suggest. 
The  asylum  for  the  criminal  insane,  the  truant  schools,  the 
"ragged  schools,"  the  societies  for  the  protection  of  children, 
and  the  asylums  for  alcoholics,  are  institutions  which,  without 
being  a  part  of  the  criminal  code,  have  been  applied  more  or 
less  completely  in  North  America,  England,  and  Switzerland. 
For  these  are  happy  countries,  where  religion  is  less  a  mass  of 
dogmas  and  rites  than  an  ardent  war  against  crime,  so  that  in 
these  lands,  and  especially  in  London  itself,  where  wealth, 
density,  and  immigration  would  naturally  favor  crime,  the 
conquering  march  of  criminality  has  been  checked. 

These  attempts,  however,  being  partial,  scattered,  and  with- 
out coordination,  lack  the  effectiveness  in  the  eyes  of  the  world 
which  proceeds  from  a  complete  demonstration,  at  once  the- 
oretical and  practical.  Yet  they  have  a  great  value,  because 
partial  applications  always  precede  and  prepare  for  a  scientific 
codification;  and  also  because,  for  timid  spirits,  they  give  to 
our  reforms  the  most  convincing  sanction,  —  that  of  experience. 

What  now  lies  before  us  is  to  complete  and  systematize  these 
reforms  in  a  final  way,  in  accordance  with  the  data  of  biology 
and  sociology.    It  is  this  that  I  attempt  to  do  in  this  book. 

c.  lombroso. 
Turin,  1906. 


TRANSLATOR'S  NOTE 

WHILE  the  present  work  is  based  upon  Professor  Lom- 
broso's  French  version,  the  German  translation  of  Dr. 
Kurella  and  Dr.  Jentsch  has  been  found  a  valuable  commen- 
tary upon  certain  passages,  and  has  been  followed  in  the 
omission  of  some  few  notes  and  other  details  interesting  to 
Italians  only.  The  French  work  was  published  in  Paris  in 
1899,  and  appears  to  have  been  embodied  by  the  author  in  his 
"  L'Uomo  Delinquente  "  as  the  third  volume  in  its  latest  Italian 
edition.    The  German  translation  was  published  in  1902. 

Henry  P.  Horton. 

Columbia,  Missouri, 

November,  1910. 


CONTENTS 


Page 
General  Intkoduction  to  the  Modern  Criminal  Science  Series  .   .        v 

Introduction  to  the  English  Version     xi 

The  Author's  Preface xxxiii 

Translator's  Note xxrvii 


ETIOLOGY  OF  CRIME 


Chapter  I.    Meteorological  and  Climatic  Influences  —  Months  — 

High  Temperatures     1-16 

§    1.   Meteorological  and  Climatic  Influences 1 

§    2.   Extremes  of  Temperature 1 

§    3.   Influence  of  Moderate  Temperature 3 

§    4.   Crimes  and  Seasons 4 

§    5.   Seasons 6 

§    6.   Hot  Years 8 

§    7.   Criminal  Calendars 8 

§    8.   Excessive  Heat 12 

§    9.   Other  Meteorological  Influences 12 

§  10.   Crimes  and  Rebellions  in  Hot  Countries       13 

Chapter  II.     Influence  op  Mountain  Formation  Upon  Crime  — 

Geology  —  Soils  Producing  Goitre,  Malaria,  Etc 17-20 

§  11.   Geology 17 

§  12.   Orography 17 

§  13.   Malaria 18 

§  14.   Goitrous  Districts      19 

§  15.   Influence  of  the  Mortality  Rate 19 

Chapter  III.  Influence  of  Race  —  Virtuous  Savages  —  Criminal 
Centers  —  Semitic  Race  —  Greeks  in  Italy  and  in  France  — 
Cephalic  Index  —  Color  op  Hair  —  Jews  —  Gypsies    .    .    .     21-42 

§  16.    Influence  of  Race 21 

§  17.   Criminal  Centers 23 

§  18.   Europe 26 


Xl  CONTEXTS 

Page 

§  19.  Austria 26 

§20.  Italy «6 

§  21.  Races  in  France 83 

§  22.  DoUchocephaly  and  Brachycephaly S4 

§  23.  Light  and  Dark  Hair 35 

§24.  Jews 36 

§25.  Gypsies 39 

Chapter  FV'.     Cmijz.\TioN  —  B.^rb.vrism  —  Aggregatioxs  of  Popu- 

L.\Tiox  —  The  Press  —  New  Kxnds  of  Crime 43-58 

§  26.  Civiliration  and  Barbarism      4S 

§  27.  Congestion  of  Population 53 

§28.  The  Press , 54 

§  29.  New  Crimes 57 

Chapter  V.    Dexsitt  op  Popuiatiox  —  Immigb-ktiox  .vxd  Emigratiox 

—  Birth-Rate 59-75 

§  30.  Density  of  Population 59 

§  31.  Immigration  and  Emigration 63 

§  32.  Birth-rate  and  Immigration 69 

§  33.  City  and  Country      72 

Chapter  VL.    Scbsistexce  (Famcte,  Price  op  Bread) 76-87 

§  34.   Subsistence 76 

§  35.   Insurrections 85 


Chafteb  Vn.    Alcoholism     88-104 

§  36.   Alcoholism  and  Food  Supply 88 

§  37.   Pernicious  Effect  of  Alcohol 88 

§  38.   Pauperism 89 

§  39.   Alcoholism  and  Crime  Statistics 90 

§  40.   Physiological  Effects 93 

§  41.   Specific  Criminality 96 

§  42.   Antagonism    between    Alcoholism    and    Crime    in    Civilized 

Countries 99 

§  43.   Political  Disturbances 100 

§  44.   Alcoholism  and  Evolution 101 

§  45.   Tobacco 101 

§46.    Hashish 103 

§  47.   Morphine 103 

§  48.  SpoUed  Maize 104 

Chapter  Vlll.    Ix-fluexce  op  Edccatiox  Upox  Crime     ....     105-118 

''  §  49.    Illiteracy  and  Crime 105 

§  50.   Diffusion  of  Education.    Its  Advantages 108 


CONTEXTS  xli 

Page 

§  51.   Special  Criminality  of  the  Illiterate  and  of  the  Educated  ...  Ill 

"7  §  52.    Education  in  the  Prisons      114 

§  53.   Dangers  of  Education 114 

« 

Chapter  IX.    Influence  of  Economic  Condition  —  Wealth     .     119-137 

§54 119 

§  55.   Taxes 119 

§  56.   Inheritance  Taxes      Hi 

§  57.   Lack  of  Employment 124 

§58.   Days  of  Work 124 

§  59.   Savings  Banks 126 

§  60.   Savings  in  France 128 

§  61.   Agriculture  and  Manufacturing 130 

""       f  62.   Wealth  as  a  Cause  of  Crime 132 

§  63.    Explanation 133 

§  64.   The  Preponderance  of  Poor  Criminals 135 

Chaptek  X.    Religion     138-144 

§  65 138 


Chapter  XI.    EorcATiON  —  Illegitimate  Children  —  Orphans      145-150 

§  66.    Illegitimate  Children 145 

§  67.    Orphans 147 

§  68.   Vicious  Parentage  —  Education 148 


Chapter  XII.    Hereditt 151-174 

§  69.   Statistics  of  Hereditary  Influence 151 

§  70.    Clinical  Proofs    ..." 155 

§  71.   Elective  Affinities 160 

§  72.   Ata\-istic  Heredity  in  the  Juke  Family      161 

§  73.   Insanity  of  Parents 166 

§  74.   Epilepsy  of  Parents 168 

§  75.   Alcoholic  Heredity 169 

§  76.   Age  of  Parents 170 

§77.   Synthesis 172 


Chapter  XIII.    Age  —  Precocity 175-180 

§  78.   Age  —  Precocity 175 

§  79.   Supposed  Scale  of  Crime 177 

§  80.   Criminality  at  Different  Periods  of  Life 179 

Chapter  XIV.    Sex  —  Prostitution 181-192 

§81.  Sex 181 

§  82.   Specific  Criminality 183 


xlii  CONTENTS 

Page 

§83.   Prostitution 185 

§84.   Civilization 187 

§  85.   Recidivists 190 

Chapteb  XV.    Cnnii  Status  —  Pbofession — Unemployment     .     193-208 

§86.   Civil  Status 193 

§  87.   Professions 194 

§  88.   Soldiers 201 

§  89.   The  Insane 203 

§  90.   Aversion  to  Work 205 


Chapter  XVI.     Prisons  —  Newspapers  —  Imitation  —  Leaders  — 

Other  Causes 209-211 

§91.   Prisons 209 

§  92.   Sensation 210 

§  93.   Imitation 210 

Chapter  XVII.    Associations  of  Criminals  and  Their  Causes    .     212-225 

§    94 212 

§    95.   Religion  —  Morals  —  Politics 213 

§    96.   Barbarism 215 

§    97.   Bad  Government 216 

§    98.   Weapons 217 

§    99.   Idleness 218 

§  100.    Poverty 219 

§  101.   Hybrid  Civilization 220 

§  102.   Wars  and  Insurrections 220 

§  103.   Leaders      221 

§  104.   Prisons 222 

§  105.   Influence  of  Race 223 

§  106.   Heredity 223* 

§  107.   Other  Causes 224 

Chapter  X\TII.    Causes  op  Poutical  Crimes 226-244 

§  108 226 

§  109.   Orography 226 

§  110.   Points  of  Convergence 227 

§  111.   Density      227 

§112.   Healthfulness  —  Genius 227 

§  113.   Races 228 

§114.   Crossing  of  Races 228 

§  115.    Bad  Government 229 

§116.   Exclusive  Predominance  of  One  Class  —  Priests 231 

§  117.   Parties  and  Divisions      231 

§  118.   Imitation 233 

§  119.   Epidemic  Ideals 233 


CONTENTS  Xliii 

Page 

120.  Historic  Traditions      234 

121.  Inappropriate  Political  Reforms 235 

122.  Religion 236 

123.  Economic  Influences 237 

124.  Taxes  and  Changes  in  the  Currency 238 

125.  Economic  Crises      239 

126.  Pauperism  —  Strikes 239 

127.  Changes  of  Environment 241 

128.  Occasional  Causes 242 

129.  War 243 


PROPHYLAXIS  AND  THERAPEUSIS  OF  CRIME 

Ch.vpter  I.     Pexal  Substittjtes  —  Climate  —  CmuzATiON  —  Dens- 
ity —  Scientific  Pouce  —  Photography  —  Identification    245-254 

§  130 245 

§  131.   Climate  and  Race 246 

§  132.   Barbarism 248 

§  133.   Civilization 249 

§  134.   Modem  Police  System 250 

§  135.   Methods  of  Identification 251 

§  136.   The  Press 253 

§  137.   Plethysmography 254 

Chapter  II.    Prevention  op  Sexual  Crimes  and  of  Fraud  .    .    .     255-264 

§  138 255 

§  139.   The  Prevention  of  Sexual  Excesses 255 

§  140.   Legislative  and  Administrative  Measures 258 

§  141.   Fraud 261 

Chapter  III.    The  Prevention  of  Alcoholism 265-274 

§  142 265 

§  143.   Cure 272 

Chapter  IV.     Preventive  Measures  Against  the  Influence  op 

Poverty  and  Wealth 275-291 

§  144 275 

§  145.   CoSperation 278 

§  146.   Charity  —  Benevolence 278 

§  147.   London  —  Asylums,  Refuges,  Helps  for  the  Poor 280 

§  148.    (1)  Emigration  Societies 280 

§  149.    (2)  Em'ployment  Societies 281 

§  150.    (3)  Orphanages 281 

§  151.    (4)  Institutions  for  Neglected  Children 281 


Xliv  CONTENTS 

Page 

§  152.    (5)  Schools 281 

§153.    (6)  Care  for  Prisoners,  Convicts,  etc 281 

§  154.    (7)  Mutual  Aid  Societies 282 

§  155.   Charity  in  Latin  Countries 284 

§  156.   Don  Bosco 285 

§  157.    Dr.  Bamardo 286 

§  158.   The  Ineffectiveness  of  Charity 288 

Chapter  V.    Religion 292-300 

§  159 292 

Chapter  VI.    The  Dangers  of  Instruction  —  Education  —  Reform 

Schools,  Etc 301-324 

§  160 301 

§  161.   Family  Education 303 

§  162.   Application  of  Psychology  to  Reformation 305 

§  163.   Associations  Among  Children 307 

§  164.   Reform  Schools 309 

§  165.   Educational  Methods      314 

§  166.   Moral  Training  through  Adoption 315 

§  167.   American  Reforms  —  Placing  in  the  Country 315 

§  168.   Day  Reformatories  for  Children 318 

§169.    "Ragged  Schools" 319 

§  170.   Other  English  Measures  for  Children 320 

§  171.   Bamardo's  Institutions 320 

§  172.   Medical  Treatment 324 

Chapter  VII.    Prevention  of  Political  Crime 325-330 

§  173 325 

§  174.   Racial  Affinity 325 

§  175.   Decentralization 326 

§  176.   Contest  for  Political  Supremacy 326 

§  177.   Universal  Suffrage 327 

§  178.   The  Judiciary 327 

§  179.   Poor  Man's  Lawyer  —  Legal  Aid  Societies 327 

§  180.   Ability  to  Change  the  Laws 328 

§  181.   Conservatism 328 

§  182.    Referendum 329 

§  183.   Archaic  Education 329 

§  184.   Economic  Discontent      329 

Chapter  VIII.    Penal  Institutions 331-352 

§185 331 

§  186.    Cellular  Prisons 331 

§187.   The  Graded  System 337 

§  188.    Wages  and  Savings 344 


CONTENTS  xlv 

Page 

§  189.  Homes,  etc.,  for  Released  Convicts 344 

§  190.   Deportation 346 

§  191.   Surveillance 351 

Chaptek  IX.    Abstjbdities  and  Contradictions  in  Criminal  Proced- 
ure          353-364 

§  192 353 

§  193.   The  Jury 353 

§  194.   Appeal 357 

§  195.   Pardon 358 

§  196.   Criminological  Prejudices 359 

§  197.   Erroneous  Theories 361 

§  198.   Causes  of  this  State  of  Things      362 


SYNTHESIS  AND  APPLICATION 

Chapter  I.    Atavism  and  Epilepsy  in  Crime  and  in  Punishment  .     365-384 

§  199 365 

§  200.   Atavism 365  " 

§  201.   Epilepsy 369 

§  202.   Combination  of  Morbid  Anomalies  with  Atavism 373 

§  203.   The  Criminaloid 373 

§  204.    Criminal  Insane 375 

§  205.    Criminals  by  Passion 376 

§  206.    Occasional  Criminals 376 

•  §  207.   Causes 376 

§  208.   Necessity  of  Crime 377 

§  209.   The  Right  to  Punish 379 

Chapter  II.     Penalties  According  to  Criminal  Anthropology  — 
Fines  —  Probation  System  —  Insane  Asylums  —  Institutions 

for  the  Incorrigible  —  Capital  Punishment 385-405 

§210 385 

§  211.   Penalties  other  than  Imprisonment      387 

§  212.   Corporal  Punishment  —  Confinement  at  Home 388 

§  213.   Fines 389 

§  214.    Indemnity 389 

§  215.   Reprimand  and  Security 390 

§  216.   Probation  System  —  Conditional  Sentence 391 

§  217.   The  Reformatory  at  Elmira 393 

§  218.   Asylums  for  the  Criminal  Insane      397 

Chapter  III.    Penalties  Anthropologically  Adapted  to  the  Sex, 

Age,  Etc.,  of  the  Criminal,  and  to  the  Nature  of  the  Crime  406-428 

§  219.   Sex 406 

§220.   Abortion 407 


xlvi  CONTENTS 

Page 

§221.   Infanticide 408 

§  222.   Age  —  Youth 410 

§223.   Old  Age 411 

§  224.   Criminals  by  Passion 412 

§  225.   Political  Criminals 412 

§  226.   Occasional  Criminals 414 

§  227.   Aid  to  Suicide 415 

§  228.   Defamation 416 

§  229.   The  Duel 416 

§  230.   Adultery 417 

§231.   Criminaloids 418 

§  232.   Homo-sexual  OfiFenders 418 

§  233.   Other  Minor  Offenses      418 

§234.   Complicity 419 

§  235.   Habitual  Criminals 419  ^ 

§  236.    The  Criminal  Insane 420 

§  237.   Incorrigible  Criminals 424 

§  238.   The  Death  Penalty 426 

Chapter  IV.    Practical  Proofs  of  the  Utility  of  these  Reforms  — 

England  —  Switzerland 429-433 

§  239 429 

§240.   Bom  Criminals 432*^ 

Chapter  V.    Practical  Application  to  the  Criticism  of  Criminal 

Law,  to  Expert  Testimont,  Pedagogy,  Art,  and  Science  .     434-439 

§241 434 

§  242.   Political  Crime 434 

§  243.    Application  of  Psychiatric  Expert  Testimony 435 

§  244.   Proof  of  Innocence 437 

§  245.   Pedagogy 438 

§  246.   Art  —  Letters 439 

Chapter  VI.    The  Utilization  of  Crime  —  Symbiosis 440-451 

§247 440 

§  248.   Symbiosis 446 


Bibliography  of  the  Writings  of  Cesare  Lombroso  on  Criminal         -^ 
Anthropology 453 

Index 465 


CRIME: 

ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 

part  ^nt 

JETIOLOGY  OF  CRIME 

CHAPTER  I 

METEOROLOGICAL  AND  CLIMATIC  INFLUENCES MONTHS  —  HIGH 

TEMPERATURES 

§  I.    Meteorological  and  Climatic  Influences 

EVERY  crime  has  its  origin  in  a  multiplicity  of  causes, 
often  intertwined  and  confused,  each  of  which  we  must, 
in  obedience  to  the  necessities  of  thought  and  speech,  investi- 
gate singly.  This  multiplicity  is  generally  the  rule  with  human 
phenomena,  to  which  one  can  almost  never  assign  a  single 
cause  unrelated  to  others.  Every  one  knows  that  cholera, 
typhus,  and  tuberculosis  have  specific  causes,  but  no  one  would 
venture  to  maintain  that  meteorological,  hygienic,  and  psychic 
factors  have  nothing  to  do  with  them.  Indeed,  the  best  observ- 
ers often  remain  undecided  as  to  the  true  specific  cause  of  any 
given  phenomenon. 

§  2.   Extremes  of  Temperature 

Among  the  determining  causes  of  all  biological  activity  are 
reckoned  meteorological  phenomena,  and  among  these  is  heat. 
Thus  the  leaves  of  Drosera  rotundifolia,  after  having  been 
immersed  in  water  at  110°  F.,  become  inflected  and  more  sen- 
sitive to  the  action  of  nitrogenous  substances;  ^   but  at  130°  F. 

1  Darwin,  "Insectivorous  Plants." 


2  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  2 

they  no  longer  show  any  inflection,  and  the  tentacles  are  tem- 
porarily paralyzed,  not  regaining  their  mobility  until  immersed 
in  cold  water. 

Physiology  and  statistics  show  that  most  human  functions 
are  subject  to  the  influence  of  heat.^  It  is  to  be  expected,  then, 
that  excessive  heat  will  have  its  effect  upon  the  human  mind. 

History  records  no  example  of  a  tropical  people  that  has 
not  fallen  into  subjection.  Great  heat  leads  to  overproduction, 
which  in  turn  becomes  the  cause,  first,  of  an  unequal  distribu- 
tion of  wealth,  and  then,  as  a  consequence,  of  great  inequality 
in  the  distribution  of  political  and  social  power.  In  the  coun- 
tries subject  to  great  heat  the  mass  of  the  people  count  for 
nothing;  they  have  neither  voice  nor  influence  in  the  govern- 
ment; and  though  revolutions  may  often  occur,  these  are  but 
palace-revolutions,  never  uprisings  of  the  people,  who  attach 
no  importance  to  them.^  Buckle,  among  other  reasons,  finds 
an  explanation  in  the  fact  that  the  dwellers  in  hot  countries 
need  less  food,  clothing,  and  fuel,  and  hence  do  not  possess  the 
powers  of  resistance  which  dwellers  in  colder  countries  acquire 
in  their  contest  with  nature.  On  this  account  tropical  peoples 
are  more  inclined  to  inertia,  to  the  use  of  narcotics,  to  the 
passive  meditation  of  the  Yogi,  and  to  the  extravagant  asceti- 
cism and  self-torture  of  the  fakir.  The  inertia  brought  on  by 
the  heat  and  the  constant  feeling  of  weakness  that  follows  it, 
renders  the  constitution  more  liable  to  convulsions,  and  favors 
a  tendency  to  vague  dreaming,  to  exaggerated  imagination, 
and,  in  consequence,  to  fanaticism  at  once  religious  and  des- 
potic. From  this  condition  of  things  flows  naturally  excessive 
licentiousness,  alternating  with  excessive  asceticism,  as  the 
most  brutal  absolutism  alternates  wath  the  most  unrestrained 
anarchy. 

In  cold  countries  the  power  of  resisting  hardship  is  greater, 
owing  to  the  expenditure  of  energj^  necessary  in  procuring  food, 
clothing,  and  fuel;  but  just  for  that  reason  a  visionary  and  un- 
stable character  is  less  frequent,  the  excessive  cold  making  the 
imagination  inactive,  the  mind  less  irritable  and  less  inconstant. 

1  Lombroso,  "Pensiero  e  Meteore,"  Milan,  1878. 

2  Buckle,  "Hist,  of  Civilization,"  I,  195-196. 


§3]   METEOROLOGICAL  AND  CLIMATIC  INFLUENCES    3 

The  contest  vnth  the  cold  consumes  energy  that  would  other- 
wise have  been  available  for  the  social  and  personal  activity  of 
the  individual.  From  this  fact,  and  from  the  depressing  effect 
which  the  cold  exercises  directly  upon  the  nervous  system, 
proceed  the  placidity  and  mildness  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
polar  regions.  Dr.  Rink  depicts  certain  Eskimo  tribes  as  so 
pacific  and  placid  that  they  have  not  even  a  word  for  "quarrel," 
their  strongest  reaction  to  an  affront  being  merely  silence. 
Larrey  notices  that  on  the  retreat  from  Moscow  the  snows  of 
Russia  made  weaklings  and  even  cowards  of  soldiers  whom, 
up  to  that  time,  neither  danger,  wounds,  nor  hunger  had  been 
able  to  shake.  Bove  relates  that  among  the  Chukchi  at  40° 
below  zero  there  are  no  quarrels,  acts  of  violence,  or  crimes. 
Preyer,  the  bold  polar  traveler,  notes  how  at  the  same  tem- 
perature his  will  became  paralyzed,  his  senses  dulled,  and  his 
speech  embarrassed.^ 

This  explains  why,  not  only  despotic  Russia,  but  also  the 
liberal  Scandinavian  coiuitries,  have  rarely  experienced  rev- 
olutions. 

§  3.   Influence  of  Moderate  Temperatures 

The  influence  wliich  is  most  apt  to  produce  a  disposition 
toward  rebellion  and  crime  is  that  of  a  relatively  moderate 
degree  of  heat.  This  is  confirmed  by  a  study  of  the  psychology 
of  the  peoples  of  southern  Europe,  which  shows  us  that  they 
tend  to  be  unstable,  and  to  subordinate  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity and  state  to  the  individual.  This  is  doubtless  because 
heat  excites  the  nervous  centers  as  alcohol  does,  without,  how- 
ever, arriving  at  the  point  of  producing  apathy;  and  further 
because  the  climate,  without  removing  human  needs  entirely, 
reduces  them  by  increasing  the  productivity  of  the  soil  and  at 
the  same  time  diminishing  the  necessity  for  food,  clothing,  and 
alcoholic  drinks.  In  the  dialect  of  Parma  the  sun  is  called  the 
"Father  of  Ragamuffins." 

Daudet,  who  has  written  an  entire  novel  ("Nouma  Rou- 
mestan")  to  depict  the  great  influence  of  the  climate  of  southern 
Europe  upon  conduct,  says: 

1  Petermann,  "  Mitteilungen,"  1876. 


4  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  4 

"The  Southerner  does  not  love  strong  drinks;  he  is  intoxi- 
cated by  nature.  Sun  and  wind  distil  in  him  a  terrible  natural 
alcohol  to  whose  influence  every  one  born  under  this  sky  is  sub- 
ject. Some  have  only  the  mild  fever  which  sets  their  speech 
and  gesture  free,  redoubles  their  audacity,  makes  everything 
seem  rosy-hued,  and  drives  them  on  to  boasting;  others  live 
in  a  blind  delirium.  And  what  Southerner  has  not  felt  the 
sudden  giving  way,  the  exhaustion  of  his  whole  being,  that 
follows  an  outburst  of  rage  or  enthusiasm.'*" 

Neri  Taufucio  ("Napoli  a  Colpo  d'Occhio")  remarks  that 
inconstancy  is  a  characteristic  of  the  southern  peoples. 

"One  at  first  considers  them  naive,  until  suddenly  one  per- 
ceives that  they  are  finished  rascals.  They  are  at  the  same  time 
industrious  and  lazy,  sober  and  intemperate;  in  short,  their 
character,  at  least  among  the  lower  classes,  has  such  different 
aspects  and  changes  so  rapidly,  that  it  is  impossible  to  fix  it. 
The  climate  favors  the  loss  of  modesty.  The  people  are  prolific; 
the  thought  of  the  future  of  their  children  does  not  terrify  them. 
The  lazzarone  steals  when  he  has  a  chance,  but  never  when 
there  is  any  risk  to  be  incurred.  A  boaster,  he  promises  ten 
things,  and  performs  one.  If  he  falls  into  a  quarrel,  he  shouts 
and  gesticulates  to  arouse  fear,  although  he  is  afraid  himself; 
he  tries  to  avoid  actual  fighting,  but  becomes  wild  if  it  comes 
to  actual  blows.  Jealous,  he  slashes  his  wife's  face  if  he  doubts 
her.  Independent,  he  can  endure  neither  hospitals  nor  asylums. 
When  he  has  work,  he  does  it  well.  He  feels  a  strong  affection 
for  his  family,  contents  himself  with  little,  and  does  not  become 
intoxicated.  Crafty,  mendacious,  and  timid,  his  existence  is  a 
series  of  petty  frauds,  deceits,  and  acts  of  beggary.  To  get  a 
few  cents  in  alms  he  is  capable  of  kissing  your  shoes  without 
feeling  himself  humiliated  thereby.  His  science  is  supersti- 
tion. Meeting  a  hunchback  or  a  blind  man  conveys  a  quite 
definite  augury.  His  ideas  move  in  the  small  circle  of  God, 
devil,  witches,  evil  eye.  Holy  Trinity,  honor,  knife,  theft,  orna- 
ments, and  —  Camorra.  The  masses  fear  this  last,  but  re- 
spect it.  For  they  feel  that  this  despotic  power  protects  them 
against  the  other  despots.  It  is  the  only  authority  from  which 
they  can  hope  for  anything  that  resembles  justice." 

§  4.    Crimes  and  Seasons 

The  influence  of  heat  upon  certain  crimes  is  then  quite 
comprehensible. 

It  is  brought  out  in  Guerry's  statistics  that  the  crime  of  rape 


§4]    METEOROLOGICAL  AND  CLIMATIC  INFLUENCES    5 

occurs  in  England  and  France  oftenest  in  the  hot  months;  and 
Curcio  has  observed  the  same  thing  in  Italy. 


Rapes  committed  in 


England 
(1834-56) 


France 
(1829-60) 


Italy 
(1869) 


January  . 
February 
March  . 
April  .  . 
May  .  . 
June  .  . 
July  .  . 
August  . 
September 
October  . 
November 
December 


Per  cent 

5.25 

7.39 

7.75 

9.21 

9.24 

10.72 

10.46 

10.52 

10.29 

8.18 

5.91 

3.08 


Per  cent 

5.29 

5.67 

6.39 

8.98 

10.91 

12.88 

12.95 

11.52 

8.77 

6.71 

5.16 

4.97 


Total  number 
26 
22 
16 
28 
29 
29 
37 
35 
29 
14 
12 
15 


In  England,  according  to  Guerry,  and  in  Italy,  according  to 
Curcio,  the  maximum  number  of  murders  falls  in  the  hottest 
months.     There  occurred: 


July    .    . 
June      .    . 
August  . 
May  .    . 
February  . 
March    . 
December 
January 


Italy 
(1869) 


Poisoning  also,  according  to  Guerry,  occurs  oftenest  in  May. 
The  same  phenomenon  is  to  be  observed  in  the  case  of  rebellions. 
In  studying  (as  I  have  in  my  "Political  Crime")  the  836  up- 
risings that  took  place  in  the  whole  world  in  the  period  between 
1791  and  1880,  one  finds  that  in  Asia  and  Africa  the  greatest 


6 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§5 


number  falls  in  July.  In  Europe  and  America  the  greater  prev- 
alence of  rebellions  in  the  hot  months  could  not  be  more 
clearly  marked.  In  Europe  the  maximum  proved  to  be  in 
July,  and  in  South  America  in  January,  which  are  respectively 
the  two  hottest  months.  The  minimum  falls  in  Europe  in 
December  and  January,  and  in  South  America  in  May  and 
June,  which  again  correspond  in  temperature. 

If  now  we  pass  from  the  whole  of  Europe  to  the  particular 
countries,  we  still  find  the  greatest  number  of  uprisings  in  the 
hot  months.  July  leads  in  Italy,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  France; 
August,  in  Germany,  Turkey,  England,  and  (with  March)  in 
Greece.  March  leads  in  Ireland,  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Den- 
mark; January,  in  Switzerland;  September,  in  Belgium  and 
the  Netherlands;  April,  in  Russia  and  Poland;  and  ISIay,  in 
Bosnia,  Herzegovina,  Servia,  and  Bulgaria.  From  this  the 
influence  of  the  hot  months  would  seem  to  be  greatest  in  the 
countries  of  the  South. 

§  5.    Seasons 

Bringing  together  by  seasons  the  data  of  uprisings  in  Europe 
during  a  hundred  years,  we  get  the  following: 


■t'z 


c  C  3 


oE 


Spring  . 
Summer 
Autumn 
Winter  . 


23 

27 

7 

9  6 

16 

7 

6 

38 

29 

12 

11  7 

20 

8 

5 

18 

14 

4 

5  3 

15 

6 

3 

20 

18 

6 

3  3 

10 

2 

10 

7 

3 

4 

11 

6 

4 

4 

7 

2 

3 

2 

2 

From  this  it  appears  that  summer  holds  the  first  place  in  the 
case  of  five  nations,  among  them  all  those  of  the  South.  In 
the  case  of  four,  including  the  most  northerly,  it  is  spring  that 
leads;  in  one  case  (Austro-Hungary)  it  is  autumn;  and  in  one 
other  (Switzerland)  it  is  winter.  We  find,  further,  that  five 
times,  and  principally  in  the  hottest  countries,  the  winter  has 


§  5]    METEOROLOGICAL  AND  CLBIATIC  INFLUENCES    7 

more  revolutions  than  the  autumn;  eight  times  it  has  fewer,  and 
three  times  an  equal  number. 

If  we  consider  America,  especially  South  America  (remember- 
ing that  January  there  corresponds  to  our  July,  and  February 
to  our  August)  we  shall  find: 


America 

Europe 

Spring 

Summer 

76 
92 
54 
61 

142 

167 

Autumn 

94 

Winter       

92 

We  see,  then,  that  in  both  hemispheres  summer  takes  the 
first  place,  while  spring  always  surpasses  both  autumn  and  win- 
ter, doubtless,  as  with  crimes,  because  of  the  first  heat,  but  also 
because  of  the  diminution  of  the  food  supply.  Autumn  and 
winter,  on  the  contrary,  differ  little  in  the  number  of  revolu- 
tions, \\anter  giving  in  America  seven  more  than  autumn,  and 
in  Europe  two  fewer. 

Witli  regard  to  crimes,  also,  spring  and  summer  stand  plainly 
in  the  first  rank.  Guerry  gives  the  following  figures  for  the  occur- 
rence of  crimes  against  persons: 


In  England 


In  winter 
In  spring  . 
In  summer 
In  autumn 


17.92% 
26.20% 
31.70% 
24.38% 


In  France 


15.93% 
26.00% 
37.31% 
20.60% 


Benoiston  de  Chateneuf  points  out  that  duels  in  the  army 
are  more  frequent  in  the  summer.^ 

I  have  proved  that  the  same  influence  manifests  itself  in  the 
case  of  men  of  genius.^ 

1  Corre,  "Crimes  et  Suicides,"  1891,  628. 

2  "  Man  of  Genius,"  Part  I. 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§7 


§  6.   Hot  Years 

Ferri,  in  his  "Crime  in  its  Relation  to  Temperature,"  has 
proved  from  a  study  of  the  French  criminal  statistics  from 
1825  to  1878  that  one  can  deduce  an  almost  complete  parallel- 
ism between  heat  and  criminality,  not  only  for  the  different 
months,  but  also  for  years  of  different  degrees  of  heat.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  temperature  on  crime  from  1825  to  1848  appears 
to  be  very  pronounced  and  constant,  and  is  often  even  greater 
than  that  exercised  by  agricultural  production.  Since  1848, 
notwithstanding  the  more  serious  agricultural  and  political  dis- 
turbances, the  coincidence  between  temperature  and  criminality 
becomes  from  time  to  time  plainly  apparent,  especially  in  the 
case  of  homicide  and  murder.  This  coincidence  is  to  be  noted 
especially  in  the  years  1826,  1829, 1831-32, 1833, 1837, 1842-43, 
1844-45,  1846,  1858,  1865,  1867-68. 

The  connection  comes  out  much  more  plainly,  however,  in 
the  statistics  of  rape  and  offenses  against  chastity,  which  follow 
to  an  even  greater  degree  the  annual  variations  in  temperature. 
This  may  be  seen  from  the  following  table: 


Year 

Temperature 

Cases  of 

1830  . 

89°  F. 

430 

^ 

1832  . 
1848  . 

95° 
89° 

520 
435 

^  Homicide 

1850  . 

91° 

560 

J 

1848  . 

89° 

380 

N 

1852  . 
1871  . 

95° 
90° 

640 
550 

^Rape 

1874 

100° 

850 

J 

As  regards  crimes  against  property  there  is  a  marked  increase 
in  the  winter  (theft  and  forgery  being  most  abundant  in  January), 
while  the  other  seasons  differ  little  from  one  another.  Here  the 
influence  of  the  weather  is  entirely  different.  Needs  increase, 
while  the  means  of  satisfying  them  diminishes. 


§  7.   Criminal  Calendars 

Lacassagne,  Chaussinaud,  and  Maury,  in  confirmation  of  this 
contention,  have  constructed,  with  the  aid  of  the  statistics  of 


§7]   METEOROLOGICAL  AND  CLIMATIC  INFLUENCES    9 

each  individual  crime,  real  criminal  calendars  upon  the  model  of 
the  botanists'  calendars  of  flora. 

Among  the  crimes  against  persons,  infanticide  holds  the  first 
place  in  the  months  of  January,  February,  March,  and  April 
(647,  750,  783,  662);  which  corresponds  to  the  greater  number 
of  births  taking  place  in  the  spring.  This  number  falls  off 
somewhat  in  May,  and  considerably  in  June  and  July,  to  in- 
crease again  in  November  and  December,  through  the  influence 
of  the  Carnival.  In  the  months  named  we  find  illegitimate 
births  occurring  with  great  frequency  (1100,  1131,  1095,  1134), 
as  well  as  abortions.  Homicides  and  assaults  ^  reach  their  max- 
imum in  July  (716).  Parricides,^  on  the  contrary,  are  more 
numerous  in  January  and  October. 

June  is  the  month  in  which  appears  the  greatest  influence  of 
the  temperature  upon  the  number  of  rapes  practiced  upon 
children,  May,  July,  and  August  coming  after  it  (2671,  2175, 
2459,  2238).  The  minimum  falls  in  December  (993),  followed 
by  the  other  cold  months;  while  the  monthly  average  is  1684. 
Rapes  upon  adults  do  not  follow  the  same  course.  Their  maxi- 
mum is  in  June  (1078),  the  minimum  in  November  (534);  they 
increase  in  December  and  January  (584),  apparently  as  a  result 
of  the  Carnival;  they  remain  stationary  in  February  (616)  and 
increase  in  March  and  May  (904),  while  the  monthly  average 
is  698. 

Assaults  are  distributed  irregularly  because  they  are  least 
influenced  by  the  climate;  they  increase  in  February  (931), 
decrease  during  the  following  months  (840-467),  to  rise  again  in 
May  (983),  June  (958),  going  down  in  July  (919),  rising  once 
more  in  August  (997)  and  September  (993),  to  undergo  a  new 
decrease  in  November  and  December  (886). 

In  the  case  of  crimes  against  property  the  variations  are  not 
so  pronounced,  though  they  are  more  numerous  by  3000  cases 

^  To  avoid  awkwardness  of  expression  the  term  assault  will  be  used  for 
assaults  other  than  those  peculiarly  against  women,  the  original  being 
about  equivalent  to  our  "assault  and  battery."  — Transl. 

2  The  French  parricide,  like  the  Italian  parriddio,  includes  the  murder 
of  near  relatives  other  than  antecedents.  As  the  argument  will  not  be 
affected,  however,  the  English  cognate  will  be  used  throughout  this  trans- 
lation. —  Transl. 


10  CRIME :    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  7 

in  December  and  January  (16,879  and  16,396)  and  in  the  cold 
season  generally,  than  in  April  (13,491)  and  in  the  hot  season. 
(The  monthly  average  is  14,630.)  Plainly  it  is  not  here  a  ques- 
tion of  the  direct  effect  of  the  cold,  but  rather  of  an  increase  of 
needs  in  winter  and  a  diminution  of  the  means  of  satisfying 
them,  so  that  the  motives  for  theft  are  more  abundant. 

From  the  investigations  of  Maury,*  it  is  possible  to  arrive  at 
the  following  conclusions  with  regard  to  the  individual  months : 
In  March  infanticide  holds  the  first  place,  accounting  for  1193 
crimes  out  of  10,000;  then  come  in  order,  rape  (1115  cases), 
substitution  of  children  and  concealment  of  birth  (1019),  kid- 
napping (1054),  and  threatening  letters  (997). 

In  May,  vagrancy  comes  first  (1257),  then  rapes  and  offenses 
against  chastity  (1150) ;  then  comes  poisoning  (1144),  and  finally 
rape  of  minors  (1106).  This  last  crime,  under  the  influence  of 
the  heat,  rises  abruptly  to  the  fourth  place  in  May,  having 
been  only  thirty -fifth  in  March  and  tenth  in  April,  and  reaches 
the  second  place  in  June,  with  1303  cases.  In  June  the  first 
place  is  held  by  the  analogous  crime  of  rape  upon  adults  (1313). 
The  fourth  place,  also,  belongs  to  a  sexual  offense,  abortion 
(1080),  while  parricide  occupies  the  third  place  (1151). 

In  July,  rape  of  minors  rises  to  the  first  place  (1330),  and  the 
other  most  numerous  crimes  are  of  a  similar  kind,  —  kidnapping 
(1118)  and  offenses  against  chastity  (1093).  In  the  third  place 
come  bodily  injuries  to  blood  relatives,  with  1100  cases.  In 
August,  sexual  crimes  recede  to  the  third  place,  yielding  the 
first  to  crop-burning.  This,  however,  is  caused  not  so  much  by 
the  temperature  as  by  the  opportunity;  for  at  the  harvest  time 
it  is  easiest  for  the  workman  to  revenge  himself  upon  the  land- 
lord. However,  as  Maury  rightly  observes,  the  heat  is  not  with- 
out its  responsibility  for  the  appearance  of  this  passionate 
tendency.  These  crimes  may  be  responsible  for  the  fact  that 
perjury  becomes  rarer  than  subornation  of  minors. 

In  September,  brutal  passions  become  less  violent,  sexual 
assaults  upon  children  move  to  the  fifteenth  place,  and  those 
upon  adults  to  the  twenty-fifth;  while  theft  and  breach  of  trust 
take  the  fourth  place. 

1  "Le  Mouvement  Moral  de  la  Soci^t^,"  1860. 


§  7]  METEOROLOGICAL  AND  CLE\L\TIC  INFLUENCES    11 

Embezzlement  and  bribery  have  the  first  place  in  September 
and  October,  for  in  those  months  rents  fall  due  and  accounts 
are  settled.  The  numerous  substitutions  and  concealments  of 
new-born  children  correspond  to  the  greater  number  of 
births. 

From  October  to  January,  murder,  parricide,  and  highway 
robbery  are  more  frequent,  since  the  nights  are  long  and  the 
fields  deserted.  In  November,  business  resumes  its  full  activity, 
and,  as  a  consequence,  falsification  of  accounts  and  bribery 
increase. 

In  January,  the  passing  of  counterfeit  money  and  the  robbing 
of  churches  take  the  first  place,  apparently  on  account  of  the 
dark  days.  In  February,  infanticide  and  the  concealment  of 
birth  break  out  again,  corresponding  to  the  increased  birth-rate. 

Sexual  crimes,  having  fallen  in  October  to  the  twenty -eighth 
place,  and  rapes  upon  adults  to  the  twenty -ninth,  rise  in  Novem- 
ber to  the  twenty-fourth  and  twenty-sixth  places  respectively. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  influence  of  heat  upon  crimes 
of  passion.  I  have  proved  this  in  another  way:  first,  by  con- 
sulting the  registers  of  five  great  Italian  prisons,  where  the  pun- 
ishments inflicted  were  for  rioting,  fighting,  and  violence  against 
persons;  and,  secondly,  from  the  observations  made  by  Virgilio 
in  the  penal  institution  at  Aversa  during  a  period  of  five  years. 
The  following  figures  show  that  acts  of  violence  are  much 
more  numerous  in  the  hot  months: 

May 346*"  October 368 

June 52:2  November 364 

July 503  December 352 

August      433  January 362 

September 508  February 361 

One  obtains  similar  figures  in  insane  asylums  by  keeping  ac- 
count of  the  acute  attacks  of  the  insane. 

1867  1868 

The  maximum  in  September 460  191 

"  June 452  207 

"  July 451  298 

"     minimum  "  November 206  206 

"            "           "  February 205  121 

"            "           "  December 245  87 

"  January 222  139 


12  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES      [§§  8,  9 

,  §  8.  Excessive  Heat 

Excessive  heat,  on  the  contrary,  especially  when  coupled 
with  humidity,  exercises  a  slighter  influence.  Corre  observed 
with  regard  to  the  crimes  of  the  Creoles  in  Guadaloupe  that 
when  the  maximum  temperature  is  reached  (July  5th,  85°)  there 
is  the  minimum  of  crime,  especially  against  persons;  while  in 
March  (with  a  temperature  of  62°)  there  is  the  maximum  num- 
ber of  criminals.  We  have  here,  then,  an  inversion  like  that 
which  too  great  heat  produces  in  the  case  of  revolutions,  and 
this  because  moist  heat,  when  excessive,  acts  as  a  depressant, 
while  moderate  cold,  on  the  contrary,  acts  as  a  stimulant. 

There  were: 

In  the  hot  season    In  the  cool  season 

Crimes  against  property 51  53 

"  "       persons 23  48 

Corre  observes  also  that  the  month  of  June  furnishes  the 
largest  number  of  crimes  against  persons,  and  January  the 
smallest. 

§  9.  Other  Meteorological  Influences 

Superintendents  of  prisons  have  generally  observed  that  the 
inmates  are  more  excited  when  storms  are  approaching,  and 
during  the  first  quarter  of  the  moon.  I  myself  have  not  suffi- 
cient data  to  prove  this;  but  as  the  insane,  who  have  numerous 
points  of  contact  with  criminals,  are  very  sensitive  to  the  influ- 
ence of  temperature  and  respond  quicldy  to  the  variations  of 
the  barometer  and  of  the  moon,  it  is  therefore  very  probable 
that  the  same  is  true  of  criminals,' 

One  fact,  however,  has  proved  to  me  that  organic  influences 
are  at  work  at  the  same  time  as  meteorological.  For  several 
years  I  have  noted  day  by  day  the  criminals  received  into  the 
jails  of  Turin,  and  have  always  found  that  upon  corresponding 
days  in  different  years  there  have  entered  a  remarkable  number 
of  individuals  (10  to  15)  with  the  same  bodily  peculiarity,  per- 
sons who  had  hernia,  or  were  asymmetric,  blonde  or  brunette, 

^  See  "Pensiero  e  Meteore"  (C.  Lombroso,  Milan,  1878). 


§  10]  METEOROLOGICAL  AND  CLIMATIC  IJfFLUENCES  13 

though  often  coming  from  different  provinces.  Entirely  differ- 
ent groups  were  to  be  found  within  the  days  of  the  same  week, 
when,  therefore,  there  was  no  significant  change  in  the  influence 
of  the  temperature. 

In  recent  years  economic  and  political  influences  have  come 
to  the  front  and  have  reduced  meteorological  causes  to  the 
second  rank.  Thus,  in  France,  the  effect  of  the  mean  annual 
temperature  upon  revolts,  evident  in  the  past,  has  decreased  in 
the  last  few  years;  while  northern  Europe  (Russia,  Denmark), 
on  the  other  hand,  although  under  the  same  climatic  condi- 
tions, has  had  several  uprisings.  But,  nevertheless,  the  effect 
of  the  weather  cannot  be  doubted. 

§  10.   Crimes  and  Rebellions  in  Hot  Countries 

In  all  this  the  preponderant  influence  of  temperature  is  plainly 
evident,  even  if  it  is  not  exclusive;  and  this  may  be  seen  still 
better  from  the  geographical  distribution  of  crimes  and  poli- 
tical rebellions. 

In  the  southern  parts  of  Italy  and  France  there  occur  many 
more  crimes  against  persons  than  in  the  central  and  northern 
portions.  We  shall  return  to  this  fact  again  in  speaking  of 
brigandage  and  of  the  Camorra.  Guerry  has  shown  that  crimes 
against  persons  are  twice  as  numerous  in  southern  France  (4.9) 
as  in  central  and  northern  France  (2.7  and  2.9).  Vice  versa, 
crimes  against  property  are  more  frequent  in  the  north  (4.9), 
than  in  the  central  and  southern  regions  (2.3). 

In  Italy  there  occur  — 


For  each 

100,000  Inhabitaxts 

Indictments 
for  crime 

Homicides, 
highway  rob- 
beries with 
homicide 

Aggravated 
theft 

Northern  Italy      

Central  Italy 

Southern  Italy       

Insular  Italy      

746 

862 

1094 

1141 

7.22 
15.24 
31.00 
30.50 

143.4 
174.2 
143.3 
195.9 

14  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  10 

Liguria,  simply  because  of  its  warmer  climate,  shows  a 
greater  number  of  crimes  against  persons  than  the  rest  of  north 
Italy.  In  the  period  from  1875-84  the  maximum  number  of 
crimes  was  furnished  by  Latium,  and  the  next  highest  number 
by  the  islands.  The  minimum  occurred  in  the  north,  with  512 
crimes  to  the  100,000  inhabitants  in  Piedmont  and  689  in 
Lombardy,  while  Latium  showed  1537,  Sardinia,  1293,  and 
Calabria,  1287.  We  find  the  greatest  number  of  homicides 
exclusively  in  the  south,  and  upon  the  islands.  In  Russia,  in- 
fanticide and  stealing  from  churches  are  most  numerous  in 
the  southeast,  while  homicide,  and  especially  parricide,  occurs 
with  a  frequency  that  increases  as  one  goes  from  the  northeast 
to  the  southwest  (Anutschin) .  Holtzendorff  ^  estimates  that 
murder  is  fifteen  times  as  frequent  in  the  southern  States  of 
North  America  as  it  is  in  the  northern  States;  so  in  the  north 
of  England  there  is  one  homicide  to  66,000  inliabitants,  and  in 
the  south  one  homicide  to  from  4000  to  6000  inhabitants.  In 
Texas,  according  to  Redfield,  in  15  years  there  were  7000 
homicides  to  818,000  inhabitants.  Even  the  school  children 
were  frequently  provided  with  dangerous  weapons. 

In  studying  the  distribution  of  simple  and  aggravated  homi- 
cides in  Europe,  we  find  the  highest  figures  in  Italy  and  the  other 
southern  countries,  and  the  lowest  in  the  more  northerly  regions, 
England,  Denmark,  Germany.  The  same  can  be  said  of  polit- 
ical uprisings  in  all  Europe.2  We  see,  in  fact,  that  the  number  of 
crimes  increases  as  we  go  from  north  to  south,  and  in  the  same 
measure  as  the  heat  increases.  W^e  find  the  maximum  in  Greece, 
which,  with  a  population  of  ten  millions,  shows  ninetj'^-five  revo- 
lutions; and  the  minimum  in  Russia,  for  which,  on  the  basis  of 
the  same  population,  the  number  would  be  only  .8.  We  note 
that  the  smallest  number  is  to  be  found  in  the  northern  coun- 
tries, England  and  Scotland,  Germany,  Poland,  Sweden,  Nor- 
way, and  Denmark;  and  the  largest  in  the  southern  countries, 
Portugal,  Spain,  Turkey  in  Europe,  and  southern  and  central 
Italy;  and  intermediate  numbers  in  the  regions  lying  between. 
Grouping  the  figures  in  this  way  we  find : 

'  Das  Verbrechen  des  Mordes  und  die  Todesstrafe,"  Berlin,  1875. 
2  See  the  charts  in  my  "Crime  Politique,"  1889. 


§  10]  METEOROLOGICAL  AND  CLIMATIC  INFLUENCES   15 

la  northern  Europe  about  12  revolts  to  10,000,000  inhabitants 

In  central  "  "      25       "        "  10,000,000 

In  southern       "  "      56       "        "  10,000,000  " 

Considering  Italy  separately  we  find: 

In  northern  Italy,  27  revolts  to  10,000,000  inhabitants 
In  central         "      32       "        "    10,000,000  " 

In  southern      "      33       "        "    10,000,000 

(Including  17  in  Corsica,  Sardinia,  and  Sicily)  ^ 

Arranging  these  crimes  by  degrees  of  latitude  and  figuring 
their  ratio  to  the  population  we  arrive  at  the  following  table: 


Spain                                     Italy 
To  100,000  inhabitants 

Degrees  of 
latitude 

Number  of  crimes 
committed 

Number  of  indictments 
for  crime 

Revolts 

against 

officers 

of  the  law 

Crimes 
against 
persons 

Resistance 
to  officers 

Homicides 

From  36°  to  37° 
"      37°  "  38° 
"      38°  "  39° 
"      39°  "  40° 
"      40°  "  41° 
"      41°  "  42° 
"      42°  "  43° 
"      43°  "  44° 
"      44°  "  45° 
"      45°  "  46° 
"      46°  "  47° 

14 
12 

9 

3 

11(1) 
9(2) 
6 
5 

74.3 
112.1 
58.5 
48.4 
72.4 
39.7 
31.2 
29.7 

36.7 

42.0 

30.6 

37.8  (3) 

36.8  (4) 

32.7 

18.7 

19.8 

19.2 

16.2 

39.9 

32.8 

30.0 

31.9 

28.7 

20.9 

14.1 

9.2 

5.8 

5.8 

From  this  table  the  influence  of  the  climate  is  plainly  to  be 
seen;  it  is  modified  only  by  the  influence  of  the  capital  (1  and 
2)  and  other  great  cities  (3  and  4).  Aggravated  theft  occurs 
in  Spain  in  the  north  (Santander,  Leon),  in  the  south,  and 
in  the  center  with  nearly  equal  frequency;  as  often  in  Cadiz 


^  These  facts  as  to  homicides  and  revolts  both  are  confirmed  in  the 
"Statistique  Decennale  de  la  Criminality  en  Italie,"  published  by  Bodio, 
and  in  the  "Stat.  Grim,  de  rAnnee,1884,  pour  I'Espagne,"  published  by 
the  Spanish  minister  of  justice,  Madrid,  1885. 


16  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  10 

as  in  Badajos,  Caceras,  and  Salamanca,  because  this  crime  de- 
pends less  upon  climate  than  upon  opportunity.  For  the  same 
reason  infanticide  and  parricide  are  more  numerous  in  the  cen- 
tral provinces  (where  the  capital  is)  and  in  the  north.  The  same 
is  true  in  France  and  Italy  and  in  Europe  generally.  In  Italy 
we  see  from  the  investigations  of  Ferri  that  in  all  southern  Italy 
and  the  islands,  with  the  exception  of  Sardinia,  the  influence 
of  the  heat  is  dominant  in  the  number  of  simple  homicides,  and, 
with  the  added  exception  of  Forli,  in  the  case  of  aggravated 
homicides  also.  So,  likewise,  murders  increase  in  southern  Italy 
and  the  islands,  with  the  exception  of  the  regions  colonized  by 
the  Greeks,  the  provinces  of  Apulia,  Catania,  Messina,  etc. 
Assaults  also  vary  according  to  the  same  law,  except  in  the  case 
of  Sardinia,  where  they  are  less  numerous  than  would  be  ex- 
pected, and  of  Liguria,  where  they  are  more  so.  Parricides 
follow  a  similar  course.  They  are  very  numerous  in  southern 
and  insular  Italy,  with  the  exception  of  the  Greek  portion,  but 
very  numerous  also  in  the  heart  of  Piedmont.  Poisonings 
abound  equally  in  the  islands  and  in  the  heart  of  Calabria,  but 
here  the  climate  is  plainly  not  responsible.  Infanticide  is  like- 
wise very  frequent  in  Calabria  and  Sardinia,  but  it  rages  also 
in  Abruzzo  and  Piedmont,  showing  itself  to  a  certain  extent 
independent  of  the  climate.  Highway  robbery  accompanied  by 
homicide  is,  for  the  same  reasons,  very  abundant  in  upper 
Piedmont,  in  Massa  and  Port  Maurice,  as  upon  the  extreme 
boundaries  of  Italy  and  in  the  islands.  Aggravated  theft, 
common  in  Sardinia  and  Calabria  and  at  Rome,  shows  another 
maximum  at  Venice,  Ferrara,  Rovigo,  Padua,  and  Bologna, 
and  is  accordingly  almost  independent  of  the  climate.^  The 
same  climatic  principle  holds  in  France,  where  murders  and 
homicides  are  most  prevalent  in  the  south,  with  some  excep- 
tions that  may  be  explained  by  racial  influence.  Parricide  and 
infanticide,  on  the  contrary,  are  most  numerous  in  scattered 
districts  in  north,  center,  and  south  alike,  not  from  any  climatic 
influence,  but  essentially  because  occasional  causes  are  at  work 
in  these  places. 

»  Ferri,  "Omicidio,"  1895. 


CHAPTER  II 

INFLUENCE   OF  MOUNTAIN  FORMATION  UPON   CRIME  —  GEOLOGY 
SOILS   PRODUCING   GOITRE,   MALARIA,    ETC.^ 

§  II.   Geology 

MY  earlier  investigations  showed  me  that  geological  con- 
ditions have  very  little  influence  upon  political  crime, 
and  that,  accordingly,  in  France  uprisings  are  equally  frequent 
upon  the  different  formations,  aside  from  a  slight  divergence 
in  the  case  of  the  Jurassic  and  Cretaceous. ^ 

The  same  remark  applies  to  crimes  against  persons  in  France, 
where  for  a  period  of  fifty -four  years  we  find  the  following  dis- 
tribution of  these  offenses,  in  departments  predominantly 

Jurassic  and  Cretaceous 21% 

Granite 19% 

Clay      22% 

Alluvial 21% 

The  same  proportions,  with  almost  no  differences,  hold  for 
crimes  against  property. 

§  12.   Orography 

Upon  investigating  the  relation  of  the  general  conformation 
of  the  country  to  frequency  of  crimes  against  persons,  we  find 

^  The  material  for  the  following  chapter  is  drawn  from  the  excellent 
"Criminal  Statistics"  of  Bodio,  and  the  remarkable  topographical  and 
statistical  atlas  in  Ferri's  "Omicidio"  (Turin,  1895);  also  from  the  follow- 
ing: Reclus,  "Geographic";  Dechassinaud,  "fitude  de  la  Statistique 
Criminelle  de  France,"  Lyons,  1881;  De  CoUignon,  "Contribution  a 
I'Etude  Anthropologique  de  Population  Frangaise,"  1893;  Id.,  "Indice 
Cephalique  suivant  le  Crime  en  France,"  Arch.  d'Anthrop.  Crim.,  1890; 
Topinard,  "La  Couleur  des  Yeux  et  Cheveux,"  1879.  —  For  Italy:  Livi, 
"Saggio  di  Risultati  Antropometrici,"  Rome,  1894;  Id.,  "Sull'  Indice 
Cefalico  degli  Italiani,"  Rome,  1890.  —  For  the  statistics  of  convictions: 
"Compte  Criminelle  de  la  Justice  en  France,"  1882  (containing  the  num- 
ber of  convictions  for  the  period  from  1826  to  1880);  Socquet,  "Contribu- 
tion k  rfitude  Statistique  de  la  Criminality  en  France,  de  1876  h  1880," 
Paris,  1884;  Joly,  "La  France  Criminelle,"  1890. 

2  See  "D^Ht  Politique,"  p.  77. 


18  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  13 

that  during  fifty-four  years  the  minimum,  20%,  occurred  in  the 
level  country;  the  mean,  33%,  in  departments  that  were  hilly, 
while  the  maximum,  35%,  occurred  in  mountainous  departments. 
This  is  without  doubt  due  to  the  fact  that  the  mountains  offer 
more  opportunity  for  ambuscades,  and  also  breed  a  more  active 
race.  I  have  no  doubt  that  there  is  an  actual  connection  between 
criminality  and  a  greater  activity,  for  I  have  found  the  same 
distribution  to  hold  true  in  France  for  genius  and  for  revolu- 
tionary tendencies,  both  being  more  frequent  in  the  moun- 
tainous departments  and  less  so  in  the  plains.^  Rape,  while 
almost  equally  common  in  the  mountains  (35%)  and  among  the 
hills  (32%),  is  much  more  common  in  the  level  country  (70%), 
certainly  because  of  the  greater  and  denser  population  result- 
ing from  the  large  cities.  The  same  may  be  said  about  crimes 
against  property,  and  for  the  same  cause;  for  these  crimes  re- 
verse the  order  of  frequency  given  for  crimes  against  persons, 
and  while  reaching  50%  in  the  plains,  show  47%  in  the  hilly 
departments,  and  only  43%  in  the  mountains.  In  Italy  this 
orographic  connection  is  less  clear.  We  find  the  maximum  of 
crimes  against  property  (201  to  100,000  inhabitants)  in  the 
valley  of  the  Po  on  the  one  hand,  and  in  the  mountain  and  coast 
districts  of  Calabria  and  Leghorn  on  the  other.  In  Tonquin 
piracy  is  favored  by  the  system  of  irrigation,  which  facilitates 
the  operations  of  bandits  on  the  sea  coast. ^ 

§  13.  Malaria 

Of  the  districts  of  Italy  that  are  most  visited  by  malaria,  where 
between  five  and  eight  to  the  thousand  of  the  population  die 
of  it  (Grosseto,  Ferrara,  Venice,  Cremo,  Vercelli,  Novara,  Lan- 
ciano,  Vaste,  San  Severo,  Catanzaro,  Lecce,  Foggia,  Terracina, 
and  Sardinia),  five  out  of  the  thirteen,  Grosseto,  Ferrara,  Sar- 
dinia, Lecce,  and  Terracina,  show  the  maximum  num^ber  of 
crimes  against  property.  On  the  other  hand  there  seems  to  be 
no  connection  between  the  occurrence  of  malaria  and  of  homi- 
cide. In  southern  Sardinia,  where  malaria  is  most  frequent, 
there  are  fewer  crimes  of  this  character,  and  also  fewer  sexual 

1  See  "Crime  Politique,"  ch.  iv.  2  Corre,  "Ethnol.  Crim.,"  43. 


§§  14,  15]     MOUNTAIN  FORMATION  UPON  CRIME  19 

crimes,  than  in  the  northern  part.  The  same  is  true  of  France, 
where  those  departments  that  are  most  scourged  by  malaria 
(Morbihan,  Landes,  Loire-et-Cher,  Ain)  show  the  smallest 
number  of  homicides  and  rapes. 

§  14.   Goitrous  Districts 

The  great  districts  of  Italy  in  which  goitre  and  cretinism 
are  indigenous,  and  in  which  the  soil  has  great  influence  on  the 
health  and  intelligence  of  the  inhabitants  (like  Sondrio,  Aosta, 
Novarra,  Cuneo,  and  Pa  via),  show  no  corresponding  degree  of 
criminality.  All  have  less  than  the  average  number  of  homi- 
cides, of  thefts,  and  (with  the  exception  of  Sondrio)  of  sexual 
offenses  also.  The  same  remark  can  be  applied  to  the  goitrous 
districts  of  France,  of  which  the  majority  have  only  from  1.0  to 
5.7  homicides  to  a  million  inhabitants.  Only  in  the  departments 
of  Basses  and  Hautes  Alpes  and  Pyrenees  Orientales  is  the 
number  of  homicides  greater  (9.76  to  the  million).  For  theft, 
also,  the  goitrous  districts  show  very  low  figures,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  departments  of  Doubs,  Vosges,  and  Ardennes. 
It  is  worthy  of  note,  however,  that  in  almost  all  goitrous  dis- 
tricts there  is  to  be  observed  in  the  performance  of  crimes  a 
greater  degree  of  cruelty,  mingled  with  lasciviousness. 

§  15.  Influence  of  the  Mortality  Rate 

Of  the  twenty -three  French  departments  that  show  a  mini- 
mum mortality  rate,^  seven  (30%)  have  more  than  the  average 
number  of  murders.  These  are:  Lot-et-Garonne,  Aisne,  Maine, 
Cote  d'Or,  Eure,  Haute  Saone,  and  Aube,  giving  an  average  of 
13.9%.  Of  eighteen  departments  with  an  intermediate  mor- 
tality rate,  six  (33%)  show  a  higher  number  of  assassination 
than  the  average.  They  are  Indre-et-Loire,  Aube,  Basses 
Pyrenees,  Herault,  Doubs,  Seine-et-Oise,  and  Vosges.  The 
eighteen  departments  have  15.4%  of  murders,  that  is  to  say, 
about  as  many  as  the  first  group.  Of  twenty-five  departments 
having  a  maximum  mortality  rate,  seven  (28%)  exceed  the  aver- 
age number  of  murders.    They  are:  Basses  Alpes,  Haute  Loire, 

1  Bertillon,  "Demographie  de  la  France,"  1878. 


20  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  15 

Seine,  Seine  Inferieure,  Bouches  du  Rhone,  Corsica,  and  Var, 
which  give  an  average  of  28%.  If,  however,  the  last  two  de- 
partments be  omitted,  as  showing  an  abnormally  high  degree  of 
criminality,  the  figure  is  only  20%,  much  nearer  the  other  two. 
With  regard  to  thefts,  of  twenty-four  departments  with  a  maxi- 
mum mortality  fourteen  exceed  90%,  and  the  same  is  true  of 
seventeen  of  the  eighteen  departments  with  an  intermediate 
mortality  rate.  Of  twenty-five  departments  having  a  minimum 
mortality  eight  pass  90%. 

To  sum  up,  then,  it  may  be  said  that  there  exists  no  relation 
between  the  mortality  rate  and  the  frequency  of  theft,  while 
the  frequency  of  murder  increases  as  the  mortality  rises.  In 
Italy  this  may  be  especially  well  seen  in  Sardinia,  Sicily,  and 
Basilicata.  Revolts,  likewise,  are  more  common  in  districts 
where  the  mortality  is  greatest.  Out  of  twenty-seven  depart- 
ments in  France  with  a  minimum  mortality,  fifteen  manifested 
republican  tendencies  under  the  Empire;  but  of  twenty-seven 
departments  with  the  highest  mortality,  twenty  were  republican. 


CHAPTER  III 

INFLUENCE  OF  RACE VIRTUOUS  SAVAGES  —  CRIMINAL  CENTERS 

—  SEMITIC  RACE  —  GREEKS  IN  ITALY  AND  IN  FRANCE  —  CE- 
PHALIC INDEX  —  COLOR  OF  HAIR  —  JEWS  —  GYPSIES 

§  1 6.  Influence  of  Race 

WE  have  already  seen  —  and  it  will  become  clearer  as  we 
proceed  —  that  the  notion  of  crime  existing  in  the  mind 
of  the  savage  is  so  vague  that  we  are  often  led  to  doubt  its  exist- 
ence in  the  primitive  man  altogether.^  However,  many  tribes 
seem  to  have  a  relative  morality  all  their  own,  which  they  apply 
in  their  own  fashion,  and  immediately  we  see  crime  arise  among 
them.  Among  the  Yuris  in  America  the  respect  for  property  is 
so  great  that  a  thread  is  sufficient  for  a  boundary  line.  The 
Koryaks  and  the  Mbayas  punish  homicide  committed  within 
the  tribe,  although  they  do  not  regard  it  as  a  crime  when  com- 
mitted against  outsiders.  It  is  plain  that  without  some  such 
law  the  tribe  could  not  hold  together,  but  would  soon 
disintegrate. 

There  are,  however,  tribes  to  whom  even  this  relative  morality 
is  repugnant.  So  in  Caramansa  in  Africa,  alongside  of  the  hon- 
est and  peaceful  Bagnus,  who  practice  rice  culture,  we  find  the 
Balantes,  who  live  by  hunting  and  robbery  alone.  These  put 
to  death  any  who  steal  in  their  own  village,  but  nevertheless 
steal  from  other  tribes  themselves.^  The  one  who  steals  best 
is  most  esteemed  among  them,  and  is  even  paid  to  teach  their 
children  to  steal  as  well  as  chosen  to  lead  their  marauding 
expeditions.  Not  unlike  these  are  the  Beni-Hassan  of  Morocco, 
whose  chief  business  is  theft.  These  are  disciplined,  and  live 
under  their  own  chiefs  with  rights  recognized  by  the  govern- 
ment, which  makes  use  of  their  services  in  the  recovery  of  stolen 

1  See  my  "Homme  Criminel."  *  Revue  d'Anthrop.,  1874. 


I 


22  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  16 

goods.  They  are  divided  into  oat-thieves,  horse-thieves,  village- 
thieves,  and  highwaymen.  There  are  among  them  mounted 
robbers,  who  flee  so  quickly  that  pursuit  is  futile.  They  often 
slip  into  houses  naked  and  covered  with  oil,  or  hide  themselves 
under  leaves  in  order  not  to  frighten  the  horses.  They  begin  to 
steal  at  the  age  of  eight.^  In  India  there  exists  the  tribe  of  the 
Zacka-IQiail,  who  hve  by  theft.  WTien  a  boy  is  born  to  them 
they  dedicate  him  to  his  future  profession  by  passing  him 
through  a  hole  broken  in  a  house-wall,  and  saying  to  him  three 
times,  "Be  a  thief." 

The  Kurubars,  on  the  other  hand,  are  noted  for  their  hon- 
esty. They  never  lie,  and  would  rather  starve  than  steal.  They 
are  therefore  set  to  keep  watch  over  the  harvest.^  Spencer  also 
notes  certain  peoples  as  inclined  to  honesty,  such  as  the  Todas, 
the  Ainus,  and  the  Bodos.  These  are  in  general  peoples  among 
whom  war  is  held  in  slight  esteem,  and  who  are  much  engaged  in 
trade.  As  a  rule  they  do  not  contend  among  themselves,  but 
leave  their  affairs  to  be  regulated  by  the  chiefs,  and  restore  half 
of  what  is  offered  to  them  in  their  bartering  if  it  appears  to 
them  to  be  too  much.  They  do  not  apply  the  lex  ialionis,  are 
not  guilty  of  cruelty,  honor  women,  and  nevertheless,  strange 
to  say,  are  not  religious.  Among  the  Arabs  (Bedouins)  there 
are  honest  and  industrious  tribes;  but  there  are  also  many 
others  who  lead  a  parasitic  life.  These  are  noted  for  their  spirit 
of  adventure,  their  reckless  courage,  their  need  of  continual 
change,  their  idleness,  and  their  tendency  toward  theft.  In 
Central  Africa  Stanley  found  some  tribes  distinguished  for  hon- 
esty, and  others,  like  the  Zeghes,  showing  a  tendency  toward 
robbery  and  homicide.  Among  the  Kafirs  and  Hottentots  there 
are  individuals  who  are  especially  savage  and  incapable  of 
working,  and  wander  about  living  by  the  labor  of  others.  These 
are  called  Fingas  by  the  Kafirs,  and  Sonquas  by  the  Hottentots. 
(Mayhew.) 
^  In  our  civilized  world,  to  note  the  proof  of  the  influence  of 
I    race  upon  crime  is  both  easier  and  more  certain.    We  know  that 

^  De  Amicis,  "Maroc,"  p.  205. 

'  Taylor,  "Societes  Primitives,"  Paris,  1874. 


§  17]  INFLUENCE  OF  RACE  23 

a  large  number  of  the  thieves  of  London  are  of  Irish  parentage, 
or  are  natives  of  Lancashire.  In  Russia,  according  to  Anut- 
schin,  Bessarabia  and  Kherson  furnish  all  the  thieves  of  the 
capital,  and  the  number  of  convictions  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  indictments  in  their  case  is  unusually  great.  Crimi- 
nality is  transmitted  among  them  from  family  to  family.^  In 
Germany,  the  districts  in  which  there  are  colonies  of  gypsies 
are  recognized  as  those  where  the  women  are  most  inclined  to 
steal. 

§  17.  Criminal  Centers 

In  every  part  of  Italy,  almost  in  every  province,  there  exists 
some  village  renowned  for  having  furnished  an  unbroken  series 
of  special  delinquents.  Thus,  in  Liguria,  Lerice  is  proverbial 
for  swindlers,  Campofreddo  and  Masson  for  homicides,  Pozzolo 
for  highway  robberies.  In  the  province  of  Lucca,  Capannori  is 
noted  for  its  assassinations,  and  Carde  in  Piedmont  for  its  field 
thefts.  In  southern  Italy,  Soro,  Melfi,  and  St.  Fele  have  al- 
ways had  their  bandits  since  1860,  and  the  same  is  true  of  Par- 
tinico  and  Monreale  in  Sicily. 

This  predominance  of  crime  in  certain  countries  is  certainly  A  y 
due  to  race,  as  history  clearly  shows  in  the  case  of  some  of  them.  .^ 
Thus,  Pergola  near  Pistoja  was  settled  by  gypsies,  Masson  by 
Portuguese  outlaws,  and  Campofreddo  by  Corsican  pirates. 
Even  to-day  the  dialect  in  the  latter  place  is  half  Corsican,  half 
Ligurian.  But  the  most  famous  of  all  is  the  village  of  Artena 
in  the  province  of  Rome,  which  Sighele  describes  thus :  ^ 

"Situated  on  the  summit  of  a  hill,  in  the  middle  of  a  green 
and  smiling  plain,  under  a  mild  sky,  this  village,  where  misery 
is  unknown,  ought  to  be  one  of  the  happiest  and  most  honest. 
But  the  reverse  is  the  case,  and  its  inhabitants  have  an  evil 
celebrity  throughout  all  the  surrounding  country  as  thieves, 
brigands,  and  assassins.  This  reputation  is  not  a  recent  ac- 
quisition. In  the  Italian  chronicles  one  often  meets  the  name 
of  Artena,  and  its  history  can  be  summed  up  as  one  long  series 
of  crimes. 

1  "Sitz.  d.  Geogr.  Gesellsch.,"  1868,  St.  Petersburg. 

2  "Arch,  di  Psichiatria  ed  Antrop.,"  XI,  Turin,  1890. 


24 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§17 


"The  seriousness  of  the  evil  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
statistical  table: 

Annual  Number  op  Crimes  to  100,000  Inhabitants 


Crimes 

Italy 

(1875-88) 

Artena 

(1852-88) 

Homicides  murders,  and  robberies,  followed 
by  homicide       

9.38 
34.17 

3.67 
47.36 

57.00 

Assaults      

205.00 

Highway  robberies 

Thefts,  simple  and  aggravated 

113.75 
177.00 

"Artena,  then,  is  marked  by  a  number  of  assaults,  homicides, 
and  murders  six  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  average  of  Italy, 
and  by  a  number  of  highway  robberies  thirty  times  as  great. 
And  yet  these  figures  give  only  a  very  imperfect  idea  of  the  bold- 
ness and  ferocity  of  the  criminals  of  Artena.  To  have  this  prop- 
erly appreciated  it  would  be  necessary  to  describe  all  the  crimes, 
to  tell  how  they  commit  murders  there  in  broad  daylight  in 
public  places,  how  they  strangle  the  witnesses  who  dare  to  tell 
the  truth  to  the  judges." 

The  cause,  according  to  Sighele,  lies  in  the  character  of  the 
inhabitants  and  the  influence  of  earlier  governments,  which 
elsewhere  gave  rise  to  brigandage  and  the  Camorra;  further,  in 
the  inability  of  the  authorities  to  punish  the  guilty,  because  the 
witnesses  are  bribed  or  intimidated  into  keeping  silent;  but 
above  all,  in  the  influence  of  heredity.  In  fact,  in  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  proceedings  instituted  against  inhabitants  of  Artena 
since  1852,  Sighele  came  across  the  same  names  repeatedly, 
father,  son,  and  nephew  following  one  another  at  intervals  as 
if  driven  by  a  fatal  necessity.  The  name  Montefortino,  be- 
longing to  an  ancient  family  of  Artena,  was  already  celebrated 
for  crime  as  early  as  1555.  Paul  IV  in  1557  was  obliged 
to  condemn  to  death  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  town,  and  au- 
thorized any  one  to  kill  them  and  destroy  their  castle,  "that 
it  might  no  longer  furnish  a  nest  and  refuge  for  base  thieves." 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  in  Sicily  brigandage  is  almost  exclusively 
confined  to  that  famous  valley  of  the  Conca  d'Oro,  where  the 
robber  tribes  of  Berbers  and  Semites  had  their  first  and  most 


§  17]  INFLUENCE  OF  RACE  25 

lasting  places  of  refuge,  and  where  the  anatomical  type,  the 
customs,  the  political  and  moral  ideals  still  retain  the  Arabian 
imprint,  as  the  descriptions  of  Tommasi-Crudeles  are  sufficient 
to  prove. ^  Moreover,  here,  as  among  the  Arabs,  cattle-stealing 
is  the  chief  crime.  With  these  facts  we  can  easily  be  persuaded 
that  the  blood  of  this  people,  at  once  conquerors  and  robbers, 
hospitable  and  cruel,  intelligent  and  superstitious,  inconstant, 
restless,  and  impatient  of  restraint,  must  have  its  influence  in 
Sicily  in  fomenting  the  sudden  and  implacable  revolts  and  in 
perpetuating  brigandage.  This  latter,  it  is  to  be  noticed,  is 
often  mixed  with  politics,  as  it  is  in  the  case  of  the  parent  Ara- 
bian stock,  and  excites  neither  the  horror  nor  the  aversion  dis- 
played by  peoples  less  intelligent,  indeed,  but  richer  in  Aryan 
blood,  such  as  those  of  Catania  and  Messina  in  this  same  island 
of  Sicily.  A  very  different  sort  of  community  is  that  of  Lar- 
derello  in  the  province  of  Volterra,  where  for  sixty  years  no 
homicide  or  theft  or  even  misdemeanor  has  been  committed. 
That  race  is  a  factor  in  the  great  criminality  of  the  places  men- 
tioned I  am  the  more  persuaded  through  having  observed  in 
the  case  of  most  of  the  inhabitants  a  taller  stature  than  in  the 
neighboring  regions. 

In  France,  also,  a  race  of  criminals  has  been  discovered  by 
Fauvel  in  a  row  of  villages  along  the  border  of  the  forest  of 
Tierache,  a  continuation  of  the  forest  of  Ardennes. ^  In  every 
place  where  this  race  predominates  there  are  continually  violent 
brawls,  to  which  the  authorities  most  often  have  to  shut  their 
eyes.  The  stranger  who  ventures  among  these  people  exposes 
himself  to  the  insults  of  the  women  as  of  the  men.  Even  among 
the  well-to-do  the  same  brutality  often  shows  itself  through  a 
certain  polite  varnish.  This  half-barbarous  condition  is  aggra- 
vated by  frequent  alcoholism;  and  the  people,  scorning  agri- 
cultural pursuits,  betake  themselves  to  work  in  the  forests  or  in 

1  "They  are  sober,  patient,  and  persevering;  they  are  open  to  friendly 
approaches;  they  have  an  incUnation  to  gain  their  ends  secretly  and  silently; 
they  are  at  once  hospitable  and  given  to  robbery.  The  lower  classes  are 
superstitious,  the  upper  classes  haughty.  A  man  will  say,  '  I  am  a  brigand, ' 
as  if  it  meant  no  more  than,  '  I  have  blood  in  my  veins.'  To  inform  against 
a  homicide  is  to  transgress  the  code  of  honor."  "La  Sicilia,"  Florence, 
1874. 

2  "Bulletin  de  la  Soci4t6  d' Anthropologic,"  189L 


26  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES    [§§  18-20 

the  iron-works.  Their  real  preference,  however,  is  smuggling. 
They  are  a  little  below  the  average  in  height,  but  have  powerful 
muscles,  with  broad,  strong  jaws,  straight  nose,  pronounced 
eyebrows,  and  thick,  dark  hair.  This  last  characteristic  sepa- 
rates them  at  once  from  the  blond-haired  race  who  inhabit  the 
villages  near  them,  with  whom  they  associate  only  rarely. 

§  i8.  Europe 

In  his  "Homicide"  Ferri  shows  clearly  the  influence  of  race 
upon  the  distribution  of  crime  in  Europe,  Latin  and  Teuton 
occupying  the  opposite  extremes  of  the  scale,  both  for  homicide 
in  general,  and  also  for  aggravated  homicide  and  infanticide. 
The  same  is  true  with  regard  to  suicide  and  insanity,  except  that 
here  the  order  is  reversed  and  the  Teuton  shows  the  maximum 
in  each  case,  and  the  Latin  the  minimum. 

§  19.  Austria 

Very  often,  however,  it  is  not  possible  to  arrive  at  an  exact 
estimate  of  the  influence  of  race  from  the  figures  furnished  by 
criminal  statistics,  for  we  encounter  a  whole  complexus  of 
causes  which  prevents  us  from  drawing  a  definite  conclusion. 
For  example,  women  show  the  minimum  degree  of  criminality  in 
Spain,  Lombardy,  Denmark,  Slavonia,  and  Goritz,  and  the 
maximum  in  Austrian  Silesia  and  in  the  Baltic  provinces  of 
Russia.  But  here  the  cultural  influence  is  more  in  evidence  than 
the  racial.  For  where  the  women  are  educated  like  the  men,  as 
in  Silesia  and  the  Baltic  provinces,  or  where  they  take  part  with 
the  men  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  they  approach  men  more 
nearly  in  the  degree  of  criminality.  The  same  thing  may  be  said 
of  the  greater  criminality  to  be  observed  in  the  Austrian  empire 
chiefly  among  the  youths,  especially  in  Salzburg  and  Austria 
proper,  as  compared  with  the  Slavs  and  Itahans  of  Goritz, 
Carinthia,  and  the  Tyrol. 

§  20.  Italy 

The  following  table  presents  a  summary  of  simple  homicides 
(including  assaults  followed  by  death)  and  aggravated  homi- 


§20] 


INFLUENCE  OF  RACE 


27 


cides  (including  highway  robbery  with  homicide)  for  which 
indictments  were  brought  in  the  different  provinces  of  Italy  in 
the  years  1880-83  inclusive: 


Pro\Tnces  of  Italy  with  the 
population  in  1881 

Number  of  indictments  for 

homicide  to  the  million 

inhabitants 

Simple 

Aggravated 

Piedmont  (3,070,250)     .... 

Liguria  (892,373) 

Lombardv  (3,680,615)    .... 

Venetia  (2,814,173) 

Emilia  (1,706,817)       

Romagna  (476,874) 

Umbria  (572,660) 

Marches  (936,279)      

Tuscany  (2,208,869) 

Latium  (903,472) 

Abruzzo  (751,781) 

Molise  (365,434) 

Campania  (289,577) 

Apulia  (1,589,054)      

Basilicata  (524,504) 

Calabria  (1,257,883) 

Sicily  (5,927,901) 

Sardinia  (682,002) 

47 

40 

22 

34 

27 

103 

102 

94 

76 

178 

174 

286 

217 

117 

214 

246 

205 

122 

34 

29 

21 

25 

24 

76 

70 

53 

42 

90 

76 

104 

81 

46 

86 

104 

122 

167 

It  is  apparent,  then,  that  these  crimes  are  most  frequent  in 
the  provinces  where  the  population  is  predominantly  Semitic 
(Sicily,  Sardinia,  Calabria)  or  purely  Latin  (Latium,  Abruzzo), 
as  compared  with  those  where  the  population  is  Teutonic, 
Ligurian,  Celtic  (Lombardy,  Liguria,  Piedmont),  or  Slavic 
(Venetia).  Now  beside  the  original  inhabitants,  the  Ligurians 
in  the  north,  the  Umbrians  and  Etruscans  in  the  center,  the 
Oscans  in  the  south,  and  the  Siculi,  of  Ligurian  origin,  in  Sicily, 
the  principal  social  elements  of  the  Italian  population  are  the 
Teutons,  Celts,  and  Slavs  in  the  north,  the  Phenicians,  Arabs, 
Albanians,  and  Greeks  in  the  south  and  on  the  islands.  It  is, 
then,  to  the  African  and  oriental  elements  (the  Greeks  excepted) 
that  Italy  owes  the  frequency  of  homicide  in  Calabria,  Sicily, 
and  Sardinia;  while  the  occurrence  of  a  smaller  number,  as 


28  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§20 

in   Lombardy,   is   due  to  the  large  Teutonic  element  in  the 
population. 

The  effect  of  race  is  clearly  to  be  seen  in  certain  localities 
whose  inhabitants  differ  ethnically  from  the  surrounding  popu- 
lation, and  where  the  relative  frequency  or  infrequency  of  crime 
coincides  with  the  racial  difference.  Thus  we  have  a  striking 
contrast  in  Tuscany,  where  Siena  shows  39  homicides  to  the 
million,  Florence  43,  and  Pisa  60;  while  Massacarrara  shows  83, 
Grosseto  102,  Lucca  119,  Arezzo  134,  and  Leghorn  140.  Now  it 
is  true  that  in  Massacarrara  the  quarries,  and  in  Grosseto  the 
marshes,  produce  special  living-conditions;  but  the  ethnic  in- 
fluence is  incontestable  in  the  province  of  Lucca,  which  is  dif- 
ferentiated from  the  rest  of  Tuscany  by  the  greater  stature  and 
dolichocephaly  of  its  inhabitants  (the  latter  characteristic  being 
found  in  Massacarrara  also),  and  the  greater  tendency  to  emi- 
gration. One  may  refer  also  to  the  effect  of  the  Ligurian  blood, 
calling  to  mind  how  often  the  ancient  Ligurians  revolted  against 
the  Roman  rule.  But  in  Leghorn  the  racial  influence  is  especially 
evident,  and  the  origin  of  this  is  well  known.  Leghorn,  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  was  merely  a  marshy  village,  having  749 
inhabitants  in  1551.  Its  first  settlers  were  the  Liburni,  an 
lUyrian  people,  inventors  of  the  Liburnian  galley,  and  notorious 
pirates.  To  these  were  added  Saracens,  Jews,  and  Marseillais, 
and  later  adventurers  and  pirates  invited  by  the  Medici.^ 
Leghorn,  which  from  1879  to  1883  showed  the  greatest  pro- 
portion of  indictments  for  crime,  furnished  likewise,  in  compari- 
son with  the  whole  of  Tuscany  (including  Arezzo),  the  highest 
numbers  for  aggravated  homicide,  rebeUion,  and  aggravated 
theft.  This  state  of  affairs  cannot  be  accounted  for  by  the 
greater  density  of  the  population,  for  the  density  at  Milan  is 
the  same  (919  to  the  square  mile),  and  that  at  Naples  is  much 
greater  (3976).  Neither  is  it  due  to  a  greater  preponderance 
of  the  urban  population,  for  the  urban  residents  in  Naples 
constitute  94%  of  the  total  population  of  the  municipality, 
in  Milan  92%,  and  in  Leghorn  only  80%;  while  nevertheless 
insurrections  and  aggravated  thefts  are  much  more  frequent 
there. 

1  Lombroso,  "Troppo  Presto,"  1889, 


§20]  INFLUENCE  OF  RACE  29 

Another  very  significant  contrast  is  to  be  observed  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  peninsula.  Here  the  summary  of  simple 
homicides  shows  certain  localities  in  the  provinces  of  Campo- 
basso,  Avellino,  Cosenza,  and  Catanzaro  with  a  relatively 
high  criminality,  and  localities  in  the  provinces  of  Benevento, 
Salerno,  Bari,  and  Lucca,  where  the  frequency  of  homicide  is 
small  in  comparison  with  the  neighboring  provinces  of  Aquila, 
Caserto,  Potenza,  Reggio,  and  especially  Naples.  In  the  last  the 
social  environment  would  naturally  be  expected  to  be  provoca- 
tive of  crime.  Now  it  is  difficult  not  to  deduce  a  causal  con- 
nection between  the  presence  of  Albanian  colonies  and  the  great 
number  of  crimes  of  violence  in  the  provinces  of  Cosenza,  Catan- 
zaro, and  Campobasso.  On  the  other  hand,  the  less  frequent 
occurence  of  simple  homicide  in  Reggio,  Naples,  and  especially 
in  Apulia  (Bari  and  Lecce)  depends  in  great  part  upon  the  Greek 
element  of  the  population.  To  understand  the  presence  and 
extent  of  this  element  it  is  only  necessary  to  recall  the  ancient 
Magna  Grsecia,  the  later  Greek  colonies  which  arrived  during 
and  after  the  Byzantine  supremacy,  and  the  earlier  migrations 
of  the  lapygo-Messapians.  "Even  to-day,"  says  Nicolucci, 
"the  physiognomy  of  the  greater  part  of  the  natives  of  these 
provinces  recalls  this  type,  through  which  shines  pacific  sweet- 
ness of  character."  ^  To  the  effect  of  the  Greek  element  must 
be  added  the  ethnic  influence  of  the  Norman  occupation. 

As  regards  the  marked  infrequency  of  simple  homicide  in  Sa- 
lerno and  in  Benevento,  it  is  impossible  not  to  recall  the  Lom- 
bard element  which  was  dominant  in  the  duchy  of  Benevento 
and  Salerno  so  long  and  to  such  an  extent  that  it  has  been  able 
to  resist  the  assimilating  power  of  the  native  Italians,  and  to 
preserve  to  this  day  the  tall  stature  and  blond  hair,  noticeable 
in  the  midst  of  the  types  indigenous  to  the  peninsula.  (Ferri). 
The  quite  different  influence  of  the  Albanian,  Greek,  and  Lom- 
bard elements  upon  the  criminality  in  these  contrasted  locali- 
ties is  confirmed  by  the  distribution  of  aggravated  homicide, 
and  highway  robbery  with  homicide.  Salerno  and  Reggio, 
indeed,  form  exceptions,  having  relatively  high  figures;  but 
Naples,  thanks  to  its  Greek  blood,  shows,  notwithstanding  the 

1  "Etnografia  dell'  ItaUa,"  1880. 


30  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§20 

density  and  poverty  of  its  population,  a  small  number  of  homi- 
cides, matching  the  figures  for  Bari  and  Lecce, 

Sicily,  also,  offers  a  striking  example  of  the  influence  of  race 
upon  homicide.  The  eastern  provinces,  Messina,  Catania,  and 
Syracuse,  show  a  number  of  homicides  much  smaller  than  the 
provinces  of  Caltanisetta,  Girgenti,  Trapani,  and  Palermo.  Now 
Sicily  differs  greatly  in  the  character  of  its  population  from  the 
neighboring  part  of  the  peninsula,  partly  because  of  the  numer- 
ous northern  peoples  (Vandals,  Normans,  French)  which  have 
conquered  and  ruled  the  island.  But  on  the  eastern  coast  it  is 
the  Greek  element  that  is  predominant,  and  it  is  impossible  not 
to  refer  to  this  fact  the  smaller  number  of  homicides  occurring 
there;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  to  see  in  the  large  admixture  of 
Saracen  and  Albanian  blood  the  reason  for  great  frequency  of 
homicides  in  the  south  and  north.    Reel  us  writes: 

"At  the  time  of  the  siege  of  Palermo  by  the  Normans  (1071 
A.  D.)  there  were  five  languages  spoken  in  Sicily,  — Arabic,  He- 
brew, Greek,  Latin,  and  the  popular  Sicilian.  Arabic  remained 
the  dominant  language  even  under  the  Normans.  Later  the 
French,  the  Germans,  the  Spaniards,  and  the  Aragonese  con- 
tributed to  make  of  the  Sicilians  a  people  different  from  their 
Italian  neighbors  in  dress,  manners,  customs,  and  national 
feeling.  The  differences  existing  within  the  Sicilian  population 
itself  are  very  great,  since  now  one  race  now  another  gets  the 
upper  hand  in  the  mixture.  Thus  the  people  of  the  Etna  prov- 
inces, who  are  without  doubt  of  Hellenic  origin  —  being  in 
fact  the  purest  of  the  Greeks,  since  they  have  not  been  mixed 
with  the  Slavs  —  have  an  excellent  reputation  for  deportment 
and  amiability.  The  inhabitants  of  Palermo,  on  the  contrary, 
among  whom  the  Arab  element  is  greater  than  anywhere  else, 
have  in  general  serious  faces  and  dissolute  manners."  ^ 

The  criminality  of  Sardinia  is  equally  characteristic,  whether 
one  compares  it  with  that  of  the  continent,  and  even  more  with 
that  of  Sicily,  or  considers  the  almost  constant  contrast  between 
the  north  (province  of  Sassari)  and  the  south  (province  of 
Cagliari).  Ethnically  Sardinia  is  differentiated  from  Sicily  be- 
cause the  Phenician  domination,  begun  in  remote  antiquity  and 
renewed  in  Carthaginian  times,  was  both  more  extensive  and 

1  Ferri. 


§20]  INFLUENCE  OF  RACE  31 

of  longer  duration  in  Sardinia  than  in  Sicily,  so  that  even  to-day 
the  Sardinian  skull  may  partly  serve  to  illustrate  the  ancient 
Phenician  dolichocephalic  type.  The  Saracen  elements  in  Sar- 
dinia are  less  significant,  though  there  are  two  Saracen  colonies, 
—  Barbaricini  in  the  province  of  Sassari,  and  Maureddi,  near 
Iglesias,  in  the  province  of  Cagliari.^  This  racial  difference 
certainly  contributes  to  produce  the  higher  average  of  crimes 
against  persons  in  Sicily  (notwithstanding  the  relatively  small 
number  in  the  eastern  provinces),  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
higher  average  of  crimes  against  property  in  Sardinia.  For 
example,  in  comparing  Sardinia  with  Sicily  one  sees  a  striking 
contrast  in  the  number  of  simple  homicides,  which  comes  out 
still  more  strongly  in  the  number  of  assaults.  In  the  case  of 
aggravated  homicides,  indeed,  the  figures  for  Sicily  are  lower 
on  account  of  the  small  number  in  the  eastern  provinces,  but 
the  total  of  all  crimes  against  persons,  including  homicide, 
simple  and  aggravated,  and  highway  robbery  accompanied  by 
homicide,  is  much  greater  than  in  Sardinia.  In  crimes  against 
property,  on  the  contrary,  Sardinia,  on  account  of  the  prepond- 
erance of  Semitic  blood,  goes  far  beyond  Sicily,  especially  in 
aggravated  thefts  and  in  forgeries;  whereas  in  violent  crimes 
against  property,  such  as  highway  robbery,  extortion,  and  black- 
mail, Sicily  again  takes  the  lead  somewhat. 

In  Sardinia,  moreover,  a  contrast  is  to  be  observed  between 
the  two  provinces  of  Sassari  and  Cagliari  in  the  very  type  of 
the  inhabitants,  and  in  their  social  and  economic  life.  The  north 
has  agriculture  and  manufacturing  more  developed,  while  the 
south  has  its  mines,  near  Cagliari,  Iglesias,  etc.  Now  it  is  well 
known  that  the  province  of  Cagliari  is  more  decidedly  Phenician, 
whereas  in  the  province  of  Sassari  the  Spanish  element  dom- 
inates, and  this  fact  doubtless  cooperates  with  the  economic 
conditions  to  cause  the  greater  frequency  of  forgery  and  aggra- 
vated theft  in  the  province  of  Cagliari,  and  of  homicide,  and 
highway  robbery  with  homicide,  in  the  province  of  Sassari. 

Another  example  of  the  influence  of  race  is  found  in  the  crim- 
inality of  Corsica,  which  notoriously  gives  the  maximum  num- 
ber of  homicides  (infanticide  and  poisoning  excepted)  for  the 

^  Nicolucci,  "Etnografia  dell'  Italia." 


32 


CRBIE:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§20 


whole  of  France,  but  shows  a  very  small  number  of  thefts.  By 
comparing  the  number  of  persons  sentenced  for  homicide  in 
Corsica  from  1880  to  1883  with  those  sentenced  in  those  parts 
of  Italy  that  give  the  highest  figures,  the  following  data  are 
obtained : 


Persons  sentenced  in  1880-83 

Yearly  average 

to  100,000  inhabitants 

Corsica 

Sardinia 

Sicily 

Calabria 

Molise 

(Campo- 

basso) 

Simple  homicides  and  as- 
saults resulting  in  death 

Murders  and  highway  rob- 
beries with  homicide  .    . 

11.2 
9.5 

8.6 
19.8 

14.3 
9.6 

21.5 
9.0 

19.1 
5.2 

This  means  that  although  Corsica  belongs  to  France  politically, 
it  is  Italian  both  in  race  and  in  the  character  of  its  crimes. 
Reclus  remarks: 

"Of  the  two  islands,  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  once  united,  it  is 
Corsica,  notwithstanding  its  political  connection  with  France, 
that  is  by  geographical  position  and  by  its  historical  traditions 
most  Italian." 

Thus  the  marked  differences  between  the  criminality  of  Cor- 
sica and  that  of  Sardinia  are  to  be  explained  in  great  measure 
by  racial  causes,  and  this  explanation  is  confirmed  by  the 
great  resemblance  existing  between  the  criminality  of  Corsica 
and  that  of  Sicily.  The  fact  is  that  in  Sicily  the  Saracen  ele- 
ment came  to  dominate  all  the  others,  and  this  same  stock, 
more  fierce  than  covetous,  exercised  a  great  influence  in  Corsica. 
We  know  that 

"the  ancient  inhabitants  (Ligurians  and  Iberians,  or,  as 
some  think,  Sicanians)  were  followed  by  the  Phenicians  and 
the  Romans,  but  especially,  up  to  the  eleventh  century,  by  the 
Saracens,  and  after  these  by  the  Italians  and  the  French."  ^ 

1  Nicolucci. 


b 


§21]  INFLUENCE  OF  RACE  33 

It  is,  then,  to  their  Saracen  blood  that  Corsica,  Sicily,  and, 
in  part,  Calabria  owe  their  intense  homicidal  criminality, 
together  with  their  lower  degree  of  criminality,  as  regards 
property. 

§  21.  Races  in  France 

A  glance  at  the  distribution  of  crimes  in  France  shows  that 
it  is  to  the  Ligurian  and  Gallic  races  that  we  owe  the  maximum 
of  crimes  of  blood.  This  is  proved  in  detail  by  the  summary 
of  the  various  crimes  in  the  departments  that  furnish  figures 
above  the  average.  From  such  a  summary  we  discover  that  the 
tendency  toward  murder  increases  as  we  pass  from  the  depart- 
ments having  a  Cimbric  population  (1  out  of  the  18,  or  5.5%, 
showing  a  number  of  murders  above  the  average)  to  the  Gallic 
departments  (with  8  out  of  32,  or  25%,  above  the  average), 
then  to  the  Iberian  (with  3  out  of  8,  or  373^2%) »  and  Belgian 
(6  out  of  15,  or  40%),  and  finally  to  the  Ligurian  departments, 
all  of  which  (100%)  show  more  than  the  average  number  of 
murders.  The  series  for  rape  is  sHghtly  different:  first,  Iberian 
departments  (2  out  of  8,  25%),  next  Cimbric  (6  out  of  18,  33%), 
Belgian  (6  out  of  15,  40%),  Gallic  (13  out  of  32,  41%),  and 
finally,  as  before,  the  Ligurian  (6  out  of  9,  67%).  In  crimes 
against  property,  on  the  other  hand,  we  see  the  Belgians,  the 
most  industrial  of  the  races,  lead,  with  67%  of  their  depart- 
ments above  the  average,  followed  closely  by  the  Ligurians  and 
Iberians,  wdth  60%  and  61%  respectively,  while  the  Cimbric 
and  Gallic  elements  show  only  30%  and  39%. 

As  I  have  showTi  in  my  "Crime  Politique,"  the  dominant 
influence  of  the  Ligurian  and  Gallic  races  is  determined  by  their 
greater  activity.  The  Ligurian  peoples  of  France  furnished  the 
maximum  of  insurgents  (all  the  departments,  or  100%,  being 
above  the  average),  and  the  maximum  number  of  men  of  genius 
(60%  of  the  departments  being  above  the  average).  The  Gallic 
departments  come  next,  with  82%  for  insurgents  and  19%  for 
men  of  genius;  the  Belgians,  62%  and  33%;  while  the  Cimbric 
departments  showed  only  38%  for  insurgents  wdth  scarcely  5% 
for  men  of  genius;  and  the  Iberians  furnish  the  minimum,  with 
14%  and  5%  for  insurgents  and  men  of  genius  respectively. 


34  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§22 

§  22.  Dolichocephaly  and  Brachycephaly 

I  have  attempted  to  discover  the  relationship  between  crim- 
inahty  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  cephaHc  index  and  the  color  of 
the  hair  on  the  other,  being  convinced  that  more  reliable  indica- 
tions of  the  influence  of  race  might  be  obtained  in  this  way. 
In  studying  crime  in  Italy  in  relation  to  the  cephalic  index,  I 
have  seen  from  the  plates  of  Livi  that  in  21  provinces  having  a 
preponderance  of  dolichocephaly  (index  from  77  to  80  inclusive), 
the  average  of  homicides  and  assaults  is  31%,  while  thfe  general 
average  in  Italy  is  17%.  In  all  the  dolichocephalic  provinces, 
with  the  exception  of  Lucca  and  Lecce,  that  is  to  say,  in  19 
out  of  21,  the  proportion  of  homicides  is  above  the  average. 
The  provinces  where  mesocephaly  (index,  81  to  82)  dominates 
fall  below  the  dolichocephalic  provinces  in  homicide,  giving  an 
average  of  25%.  But  where  brachycephaly  (index,  83  to  88)  is 
most  abundant  the  figure  is  8%,  an  average  much  below  that 
for  the  country  as  a  whole. 

It  must  be  noted,  however,  that  the  dolichocephalic  provinces 
are  in  the  south,  Tvath  the  exception  of  Lucca,  which  is  also  an 
exception  to  the  parallelism  of  dolichocephaly  and  crime;  that 
the  brachycephalic  provinces,  with  the  exception  of  Abruzzo, 
are  all  in  upper  Italy;  and  that  the  ultrabrachy cephalic  are  to 
be  found  in  the  mountainous  regions,  which  all  have  a  smaller 
number  of  crimes  of  blood.  As  for  the  mesocephalic  population, 
it  is  to  be  met  in  southern  Italy,  or  in  the  warmer  parts  of  upper 
Italy,  like  Leghorn  and  Genoa,  so  it  nmst  be  conceded  that  the 
influence  of  climate  enters  here  with  that  of  race.  In  the  case 
of  theft  the  difference  is  much  smaller.  Though  observable,  it 
is  far  less  marked  than  in  the  case  of  homicide,  as  may  be  seen 
from  the  fact  that  the  dolichocephalic  provinces  have  460  thefts 
to  the  million  inliabitants,  the  mesocephalic  400,  and  the  bra- 
chycephalic 360. 

In  France  ^  the  crimes  against  persons  give  an  average  of  18 
to  the  100,000  in  the  brachycephalic  departments,  and  of  36  in 
the  dolichocephalic,  including  Corsica  (Collignon) ;  but  without 
Corsica  it  gives  an  average  of  only  24,  the  average  for  the  whole 

1  See  "Compte  Criminelle  de  la  Justice  en  France." 


§23]  INFLUENCE  OF  RACE  35 

country  ranging  from  24  to  33  to  the  100,000.  If  we  follow  the 
figures  given  by  Ferri  we  find  an  even  smaller  difference.  Ac- 
cording to  him  the  crimes  of  blood  among  the  dolichocephalic 
part  of  the  population  (without  Corsica)  amount  to  13  to  the 
100,000,  and  to  19  in  the  brachycephalic  departments.  From 
this  it  is  evident  how  much  greater  influence  climate  has  upon 
crimes  of  blood  than  has  race;  for  in  Italy,  where  the  dolicho- 
cephalic part  of  the  population  is  collected  in  the  south,  its 
preponderance  in  crime  is  enormous.  But  in  France,  where 
it  is  distributed  everywhere,  in  the  south,  in  the  north  (Pas- 
de-Calais,  Nord,  Aisne),  and  in  the  center  (Haute  Vienne, 
Charente),  it  furnishes  no  precise  data,  and  sometimes  even 
gives  smaller  figures  than  the  brachycephalic  population.  In 
the  case  of  crimes  against  property,  however,  the  difference 
in  France  is  remarkable.  The  long-heads  show  44  crimes  to 
the  100,000,  and  the  round-heads  only  23. 

In  general,  there  is  everywhere  a  preponderance  of  crime  in 
the  districts  dominated  by  dolichocephaly.  In  France  the  long- 
heads have  furnished  the  greatest  number  of  revolutionists  and 
geniuses;  and  it  is  among  the  dolichocephaHc  Gauls  and  Liguri- 
ans  that  the  princes  and  peoples  have  been  found  who  offered 
most  resistance  to  conquest.  This  is  apparently  in  complete 
opposition  to  the  teaching  of  criminal  anthropology,  according 
to  which  criminals  are  nearly  always  ultra-brachycephalic;  but 
it  is  in  reality  of  great  value  as  enabling  us  to  show  the  better 
that  the  exaggerated  brachycephaly  of  criminals  is  a  plain  mark 
of  degeneracy. 

§  23.  Light  and  Dark  Hair 

In  investigating  the  relation  of  the  color  of  the  hair  to  crim- 
inality in  France,  I  have  found  that  in  the  departments  where 
dark  hair  predominates  the  figures  for  murder  reach  12.6%  (or 
9.2%  without  Corsica),  while  the  light-haired  departments  give 
only  6.3%.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  dark  hair  is  espe- 
cially abundant  in  hot  districts.  Vendee,  Herault,  Var,  Gers, 
Landes,  Corsica,  Bouches-du-Rhone,  Basses-Alpes,  Gironde,  etc. 
The  influence  of  climate  is  perhaps,  therefore,  not  to  be  excluded. 
Similarly  blond  hair  (except  in  Vaucluse)  is  more  frequent  in 


36  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§24 

the  departments  with  a  northern  climate,  Pas-de-Calais,  Nord, 
Ardennes,  Manche,  Eure-et-Loire,  which,  as  has  been  shown, 
have  a  smaller  number  of  crimes  of  blood. 

In  Italy  the  proportion  of  blonds  in  the  whole  of  southern 
Italy  is  below  the  average  of  the  kingdom,^  except  in  Benevento, 
where  it  reaches  the  average,  and  in  Apulia,  Naples,  Campania, 
Trapani,  and  eastern  Sicily,  where  it  is  only  a  little  below  the 
average.  Now  in  all  southern  Italy  crimes  of  blood  are  below  the 
average,  and  in  the  province  of  Benevento  they  give  a  figure 
which,  although  rather  high  (27.1%),  is  nevertheless  below  that 
of  the  neighboring  provinces.  The  same  is  true  of  Apulia, 
eastern  Sicily,  Syracuse,  and  Catania,  which  all  show  a  low 
degree  of  criminality  (Syracuse  15,  Catania  28,  Lecce  10).  In 
these  provinces  the  blond  color  of  the  hair  is  directly  connected 
with  the  Lombard  (Benevento)  and  Greek  races  (Sicily),  and  it 
is  for  this  reason  that  they  are  less  criminal.  I  have  found  no 
connection  with  race,  however,  in  the  blond  oasis  of  Perugia, 
nor  in  the  brunette  oasis  of  Forli,  in  central  Italy. 

The  blond  population  inhabiting  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Alps  is  in  direct  connection  with  that  of  the  mountains  them- 
selves, and  shows,  as  does  the  latter,  only  a  slight  criminality. 
But  the  cause  here  is  merely  orographic.  'On  the  other  hand, 
the  brunette  oasis  of  Leghorn  and  Lucca  coincides  with  a 
criminality  greater,  even  in  crimes  of  blood,  than  that  of  the 
neighboring  parts  of  Tuscany,  and,  as  here  the  color  of  the  hair 
is  accompanied  by  a  special  dolichocephaly  without  being  ex- 
plicable by  any  orographic  cause,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have 
a  new  proof  of  the  influence  of  race  upon  crimes  of  blood.  In 
the  case  of  crimes  against  property  there  is  no  evident  corre- 
spondence. For  example,  the  province  of  Treviso,  where  the 
inhabitants  are  very  blond,  gives  the  maximum  of  criminality, 
and  Ferrara,  where  the  population  is  very  dark,  is  nearly  equal 
to  it. 

§  24.  Jews 

The  influence  of  race  upon  criminality  becomes  plainly  evi- 
dent when  we   study  the  Jews  and  the  gypsies,  though  very 

»  See  Livi,  "  Archivio  d'Antrop.,"  1894. 


§24]  INFLUENCE  OF  RACE  37 

differently  manifested  in  the  two  races.  The  statistics  of  many 
countries  show  a  lower  degree  of  criminality  for  the  Jews  than 
for  their  Gentile  fellow-citizens.  This  is  the  more  remarkable 
since,  because  of  their  usual  occupations,  they  should  in  fair- 
ness be  compared,  not  with  the  population  in  general,  but  with 
the  merchants  and  petty  tradespeople,  who  have,  as  we  shall 
see,  a  high  record  for  criminality.  In  Bavaria  one  Jew  is  sen- 
tenced for  every  315  of  them  in  the  population,  and  one  Catholic 
for  every  265.  In  Baden,  Jewish  criminality  was  63.3%  of  the 
Christian  criminality.  In  Lombardy,  under  the  rule  of  Austria, 
there  was  during  the  space  of  seven  years  one  Jew  convicted  for 
every  2,568  inhabitants.  In  Italy  in  1855  there  were  only  seven 
Jews  in  prison,  five  men  and  two  women,  a  proportion  much 
smaller  than  that  prevailing  among  the  Catholic  population. 
Recent  investigations  made  by  Servi  show  that  in  1869,  out  of 
a  Jewish  population  of  17,800  there  were  only  eight  sentenced. 
In  Prussia,  Hausner  has  observed  a  slight  difference  to  the  dis- 
credit of  the  Jews,  there  being  one  Jew  indicted  to  each  2600, 
while  the  Christians  show  one  to  2800.  This  is  in  part  confirmed 
by  Kolb,  according  to  whom  the  following  were  recorded: 


In  Prussia  in  1859, 


1  Jew  indicted  for  each  2793 

1  Catholic        "  "      "     2645 

1  Protestant    "         "      "     2821 


From  1862  to  1865,  however. 


In  Bavaria, 


1  Jew  indicted  for  each  2800 

1  Protestant    "         "      "     3800 


1  Jew  indicted  for  each  315 

1  Catholic        "         "      "     265 


In  France  from  1850  to  1860,  on  the  average, 

the  Jews       indicted  were  .0776%  of  the  adults 
"    Catholics     "  "     .0584%  "    " 

"    Jews  "  "     .0111%  "    "    total  population 

"    Catholics     "  "     .0122%  "    "       " 

In  1854  there  were  166  Jewish  criminals;  in  1855,  118;  in 
1856,  163;  in  1858,  142;  in  1860,  123;  in  1861,  118  —  a  slight 
1  "  Handb.  der  Vergleich.  Statistik,"  1875,  p.  130. 


/tf  (./G 


38  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§24 

decrease  in  the  later  years.  ^  In  Austria,  however,  the  number 
of  Jews  convicted  was  3.74%  in  1872,  and  4.13%  in  1873, 
figures  higher  by  some  fractions  than  those  for  the  rest  of  the 
population.^ 

The  fact  of  a  special  tj^pe  of  Jewish  criminality  is  more  cer- 
tain than  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  criminality.  Among  the 
Jews  as  among  the  gypsies  the  hereditary  form  of  crime  pre- 
dominates, and  in  France  they  reckon  whole  generations  of 
rogues  and  thieves  among  the  Cerfbeers,  Salomons,  Levis, 
Blums,  and  Kleins.  Those  convicted  of  murder  are  rare,  and, 
where  they  are  found,  they  are  captains  of  bands  organized 
with  rare  skill,  like  those  of  Graft,  Cerfbeer,  Meyer,  and  De- 
champs.  These  master  rogues  had  regular  traveling  agents, 
kept  ledgers,  and  showed  such  a  degree  of  cleverness,  patience, 
and  tenacity  as  made  it  possible  for  them  to  evade  for  many 
years  the  attempts  to  bring  them  to  justice. 

Most  of  the  Jewish  criminals  in  France  have  their  own  special 
kinds  of  rascality,  like  the  trick  with  the  ring,  when  they  pretend 
to  have  found  an  object  of  value;  or  the  "morning  call,"  which 
gives  them  an  opportunity  to  rob  the  chambers  of  sleepers  who 
have  forgotten  to  lock  their  doors.^ 

The  Russian  Jews  are  principally  usurers,  counterfeiters,  and 
smugglers,  carrying  this  last  pursuit  to  the  extent  of  smuggling 
women,  exporting  them  to  Turkey.  Smuggling  is  organized 
among  them  in  semi-governmental  fashion.  Whole  towns  on 
the  border,  like  Berdereff,  are  peopled  almost  entirely  by  Jewish 
smugglers.  Often  the  government  has  the  town  surrounded  by 
a  cordon  of  soldiers,  and  upon  making  a  search  finds  immense 
stores  of  smuggled  goods.  The  smuggling  is  carried  so  far  as 
even  to  be  an  obstacle  to  commercial  treaties  with  Prussia.  In 
Prussia  there  were  formerly  great  numbers  of  Jews  convicted 
for  forgery  and  for  defamation,  but  more  frequently  for  bank- 
ruptcy and  for  receiving  stolen  goods,  a  crime  which  frequently 
eludes  the  clutches  of  the  law.  To  the  prevalence  of  this  last 
crime  among  them  is  due  the  great  number  of  Jewish  words 

1  Servi,  "Gli  Israeliti  in  Europa,"  Turin,  1872. 

2  "  Stat.  Uebers.  d.  k.  k.  osterreichischen  Strafanstalten,"  1875. 
»  "Vidocq,"  DuCamp,  Paris,  1874. 


§25]  INFLUENCE  OF  RACE  39 

incorporated  into  the  thieves'  slang  in  Germany  and  England, 
since  the  thief  looks  upon  the  receiver  of  stolen  goods  as  a  master 
and  guide,  and  in  consequence  easily  adopts  his  language.  Every 
great  enterprise  of  the  famous  band  of  Mainz  was  planned  by  a 
kochener,  or  Jewish  receiver  of  stolen  goods.  There  was  a  time 
in  France  "when  nearly  all  the  leaders  of  the  great  bands  had 
Jewesses  for  concubines."  Many  causes  formerly  impelled  the 
Jews  to  these  crimes,  as  also  to  the  unlawful  gains  of  usury: 
greed  for  gold,  discouragement,  desperation,  exclusion  from 
office  and  from  all  public  assistance,  and  the  natural  reaction 
against  the  persecutions  of  the  stronger  races,  from  which  they 
had  no  other  means  of  defense.  They  were  often  merely  shut- 
tlecocks between  the  armed  brigands  and  the  feudal  lords,  and 
were  forced  to  be  accomplices  in  order  not  to  become  victims. 
One  need  not  be  astonished,  therefore,  if  their  criminality  ap- 
pears great;  and  it  is  fair  to  note  that  from  the  time  when  the 
Jews  have  been  permitted  to  enter  political  life  their  tendency 
to  special  crime  has  diminished.  We  have  forced  upon  us  here 
anew  the  difficulty  of  coming  to  universally  valid  conclusions 
upon  the  basis  of  statistics  alone. 

Even  though  the  criminality  of  the  Jews  can  be  proved  to 
be  less  than  that  of  other  races,  a  very  different  situation  ap- 
pears when  we  turn  to  the  question  of  insanity,  in  which  they 
have  an  unfortunate  leadership.^  Here,  however,  it  is  not  so 
much  a  matter  of  race  as  of  intellectual  work,  for  among  the 
Semitic  races  in  general  (Arabs,  Bedouins)  insanity  is  very  rare. 

§  25.   Gypsies 

With  the  gypsies  the  case  is  quite  different.  They  are  the 
living  example  of  a  whole  race  of  criminals,  and  have  all  the 
passions  and  all  the  vices  of  criminals.  "They  have  a  horror," 
says  Grelmann,^  "of  anything  that  requires  the  slightest  ap- 

1  In  Bavaria  there  is  one  insane  person  to  each  908  Catholics,  967 
Protestants,  518  Jews;  in  Hanover,  one  insane  person  to  each  527  Catholics, 
641  Protestants,  337  Jews;  in  Silesia,  one  insane  person  to  each  1355  Cath- 
olics, 1264  Protestants,  604  Jews.  In  Denmark  there  are  5.8  insane  Jews 
and  only  3.4  insane  Christians  to  the  1000  of  each.     (Oettingen.) 

"^  "Histoire  des  Bohemiens,"  Paris,  1837;  Perdari,  "Sugli  Zingari," 
Milan,  1871;  Pott,  "Zigeuner,"  Halle,  1844;  Colocci,  "Gli  Zmgari," 
Ancona,  1889. 


I 


40  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§25 

plication;  they  will  endure  hunger  and  misery  rather  than  sub- 
mit to  any  continuous  labor  whatever;  they  work  just  enough 
to  keep  from  dying  of  hunger;  they  are  perjurers  even  among 
themselves,  ungrateful,  and  at  once  cruel  and  cowardly,  from 
which  fact  comes  the  Transylvanian  proverb  that  fifty  gypsies 
can  be  put  to  flight  with  a  wet  clout."  Enlisted  in  the  Austrian 
army  they  cut  a  sorry  figure.  They  are  revengeful  to  excess. 
One  of  them,  to  revenge  himself  upon  his  master,  who  had 
beaten  him,  dragged  him  to  a  cave,  sewed  him  up  in  a  skin,  and 
fed  him  upon  the  most  loathsome  food  till  he  died.  With  the 
intention  of  plundering  Lograno  they  poisoned  the  sources  of 
the  Drave,  and  when  they  believed  the  inhabitants  dead  in- 
vaded the  district  in  a  body  and  were  only  frustrated  through 
the  discovery  of  the  plot  by  one  of  the  citizens.  Gypsies  have 
been  known  in  a  fit  of  rage  to  throw  their  own  children  at  the 
head  of  their  opponent  like  a  stone  from  a  sling.  They  are 
vain,  like  all  delinquents,  but  they  have  no  fear  of  shame. 
Everything  they  earn  they  spend  for  drink  and  ornaments. 
They  may  be  seen  barefooted,  but  with  bright-colored  or  lace- 
bedecked  clothing;  without  stockings,  but  with  yellow  shoes. 
They  have  the  improvidence  of  the  savage  and  that  of  the  crim- 
inal as  well.  The  story  is  told  that  once  when  a  party  of  them 
had  repulsed  a  body  of  troops  from  a  trench,  they  called  out, 
"Flee,  flee,  for  if  we  had  any  lead  left  we  would  kill  you  all." 
The  enemy,  thus  informed  how  the  matter  stood,  turned  back 
and  massacred  them.  Without  morals,  they  are  nevertheless 
superstitious  (Borrow),  and  would  believe  themselves  to  be 
damned  or  dishonored  if  they  were  to  eat  eels  or  squirrels, 
although  they  devour  half -putrefied  carrion.  They  are  given  to 
orgies,  love  a  noise,  and  make  a  great  outcry  in  the  markets. 
They  murder  in  cold  blood  in  order  to  rob,  and  were  formerly 
suspected  of  cannibalism.  The  women  are  very  clever  at  steal- 
ing, and  teach  it  to  their  children.  They  poison  cattle  with 
certain  powders  in  order  to  get  the  credit  of  curing  them,  or 
perhaps  to  get  their  flesh  at  a  low  price.  In  Turkey  they  also 
practice  prostitution.  They  all  excel  in  some  form  of  rascality, 
such  as  passing  counterfeit  money  or  selling  sick  horses  for 
sound.     As   the   name  "Jew"   with  us  is  synonymous  with 


§25]  INFLUENCE  OF  RACE  41 

usurer  so  in  Spain  gitano  is  synonymous  with  rascally  cattle 
trader.  In  whatever  condition  the  gypsy  finds  himself  he  al- 
ways maintains  his  impassivity,  does  not  seem  to  concern  him- 
self with  the  future,  but  lives  from  day  to  day,  despising  all 
forethought. 

"Authority,  laws,  rules,  principles,  precepts,  duties,  —  these 
are  notions  and  things  insupportable  to  this  strange  race.  To 
obey  or  to  command  is  equally  odious  to  them,  it  is  a  burden 
and  a  bore.  They  have  no  more  conception  of  property  than 
they  have  of  duty;  'I  have'  is  as  foreign  to  them  as  'I  ought.'  ^ 
Result,  consequence,  foresight,  the  connection  between  past  and 
present,  all  are  unknown  to  them."  ^ 

Colocci  believes  that  they  have  special  routes,  used  also  by 
refugees,  thieves,  and  smugglers,  which  they  indicate  by  special 
marks  (the  Zinken  of  the  Germans).  Of  these  the  most  fre- 
quently used  is  the  patterau,  formerly  a  trident,  but  now  made 
in  the  shape  of  a  Latin  cross.  These  signs  marked  along  the 
course  of  the  highways,  or  drawn  with  charcoal  on  the  walls  of 
the  houses,  or  cut  into  the  bark  of  the  trees,  become  a  conven- 
tional means  of  saying  to  later  bands,  "This  is  the  gypsy  route." 
In  the  first  patterau  the  direction  is  indicated  by  lateral  lines,  in 
the  second  by  the  longer  arm  of  the  cross.  Stopping  places  are 
marked  by  the  mysterious  swastika,  which  is  without  doubt 
derived  from  the  ancient  East  Indian  symbol,  possibly  the  orig- 
inal of  our  cross.  "When  they  wish  to  leave  the  place  where 
they  are,"  wrote  Pechon  de  Ruby  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
"  they  set  out  in  the  opposite  direction  from  that  which  they 
are  to  travel,  and  after  going  half  a  league  retrace  their 
steps." 

Like  criminals  and  the  pariahs  from  whom  they  are  descended, 
they  have  a  popular  criminal  literature  which  glorifies  crime,  as 
in  the  following  dialogue  between  father  and  son: 

Father.  "Holla,  Basil,  if  you  are  to  become  great,  by  the 
cross  of  your  father,  you  must  steal." 

Son.   "And  afterward,  father,  if  I  am  discovered.'*" 

1  The  word  ought  does  not  exist  in  the  gypsy  language.  The  verb  to 
have  is  almost  forgotten  by  the  European  gypsies,  and  is  unknovpn  to  the 
gy]3sies  of  Asia. 

2  Colocci. 


42  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§25 

Father.   "Then  you  must  take  to  your  heels,  joy  of  your  sire." 
Son.   "To  the  devil  with  your  cross,  father!     You  do  not 
teach  me  well."  ^ 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  this  race,  so  low  morally  and  so  inca- 
pable of  cultural  and  intellectual  development,  a  race  that  can 
never  carry  on  any  industry,  and  which  in  poetry  has  not  got 
beyond  the  poorest  lyrics,  has  created  in  Hungary  a  marvelous 
musical  art  —  a  new  proof  of  the  genius  that,  mixed  with  ata- 
vism, is  to  be  found  in  the  criminal.^ 

1  Colocci. 

2  See  Lombroso,  "Atavism  and  Evolution,"  in  Contemporary  Review, 
July,  1895. 


CHAPTER  IV 

CniLIZATION  —  BARBARISM  —  AGGREGATIONS  OF  POPULATION 

THE    PRESS  —  NEW   KINDS   OF   CRIME 

§  26.   Civilization  and  Barbarism 

AMONG  the  numerous  social  problems  there  is  one  espe- 
cially whose  certain  and  complete  solution  concerns  us 
greatly.  It  is  that  of  the  influence  of  civilization  upon  crime  and 
insanity.  If  we  judge  by  statistics  alone  we  shall  conclude  that 
the  problem  is  already  solved,  for  in  every  country  of  Europe, 
except  England,  we  find  that  crime  and  insanity  are  each  year 
increasing  out  of  proportion  to  the  growth  of  the  population.^ 

*  In  France  from  1826  to  1837  there  was  one  person  indicted  to  each 
one  hundred  of  the  population;  in  1868  the  indictments  had  reached 
one  to  fifty-five.  (Dufau,  "Traite  de  Statisque,"  1840;  Block,  "L'Eu- 
rope  Politique,"  1870.)  From  1825  to  1838  the  indictments  (excluding 
political  crimes  and  fiscal  misdemeanors)  rose  from  57,470  to  80,920.  In 
1838  the  indictments  increased  from  237  (to  the  100,000)  to  375;  m  1847  ' 
to  480;  from  1854-55  to  1866  they  sank  to  389,  to  increase  again  to  517 
in  1874,  and  to  552  in  1889.  There  was,  then,  an  increase  of  about  133% 
in  50  years.     (Joly,  "France  Criminelle,"  p.  10.) 

In  Austria  there  were: 

In  1856,  1  conviction  to  1238  inhabitants,  1  indictment  to  832 

"  1857,  1  "           "  1191            "  1            "  "  813 

"  1860,  1  "            "  1261             "  1            "  "  933 

"  1861,  1  "           "  1178            "  1            "  "  808 

"  1862,  1  "            "  1082            "  1            "  "  749 


(Messedaglia.) 


In  England  and  Wales  there  was: 


From  1811  to  1815  1  prisoner  to  each  1210  inhabitants 

"      1826    "   1830  1         "  "       "       568 

"     1826    "   1830  1         "  "       "       477  " 

"     1846    "  1848  1         "         "      "       455  " 

From  1805  to  1841  the  population  increased  49%,  the  crimes  six  times 
more  than  the  population.     In  some  counties,  Monmouthshire  for  example, 


44  CRKVIE:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§26 

But  Messedaglia  rightly  observes  in  this  connection  how  easy 
it  is  to  make  a  mistake  in  attempting  to  solve,  on  the  basis  of 
statistics  alone,  complex  problems  into  which  many  factors 
enter  at  the  same  time.  The  continual  increase  of  crime  and 
insanity  can,  in  fact,  be  explained  by  changes  in  the  civil  and 
penal  laws,  by  a  greater  tendency  to  bring  accusations,  by  the 
easier  access  to  asylums  for  the  insane,  and  by  the  greater  ac- 
tivity of  the  police. 

(,  One  thing  appears  certain:  civilization  and  barbarism  alike 
possess  crimes  peculiar  to  them.  Barbarism,  by  deadening  the 
moral  sensibilities,  diminishes  the  horror  of  homicide,  which  is 
frequently  admired  as  an  heroic  act.  By  making  revenge  a  duty 
and  confusing  might  with  right,  it  increases  crimes  of  blood  and 
encourages  associations  of  malefactors,  just  as  among  the  insane 
it  develops  religious  mania,  demonomania,  and  imitative  in- 
sanity. On  the  other  hand,  family  ties  are  stronger,  while  sexual 
excitement  and  insane  ambition  are  less  frequent,  and  conse- 
quently parricide,  infanticide,  and  theft  are  less  frequent. 

The  types  of  civiUzation  which  man  has  hitherto  produced, 
according  to  Guglielmo  Ferrero,  are  two :  the  type  characterized 
by  violence,  and  that  characterized  by  fraud.  They  are  distin- 
guished by  the  form  which  the  struggle  for  existence  takes.  In 
the  primitive  civilization  the  struggle  is  carried  on  purely  by 
force,  and  wealth  and  power  are  achieved  by  arms,  at  the  ex- 
pense either  of  foreigners  or  of  weaker  fellow-citizens.  Com- 
mercial competition  between  two  peoples  is  carried  on  through 
armies  and  fleets,  that  is  to  say,  by  the  violent  expulsion  of 
competitors  from  coveted  markets.  Judicial  contests  are  de- 
cided by  the  duel.  In  the  civilization  characterized  by  fraud, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  struggle  for  existence  is  carried  on  by 
cunning  and  deceit,  and  the  wager  of  battle  is  replaced  by  legal 
chicanery;  political  power  is  obtained,  no  longer  at  the  point  of 

the  population  increased  about  128%,  crimes  720%.  (Aberdeen,  "Dis- 
corso,"  1876.) 

In  Italy  there  were: 

From  1850  to  1859,  16,173  indictments  for  serious  crimes,  and  7,535 
convictions. 

From  1860  to  1869,  23,854  indictments,  and  10,701  convictions. 

From  1863  to  1869  crimes  increased  one-tenth,  the  population  about 
one-twentieth  (Curcio,  op.  cit.) 


§26]  CRTLIZATIOX,  BARBARISM,  ETC.  45 

the  sword,  but  by  money;  money  is  extracted  from  the  pockets 
of  others  by  tricks  and  mysterious  maneuvers,  such  as  the 
operations  of  the  stock-exchange.  The  commercial  warfare  is 
carried  on  through  the  perfection  of  the  means  of  production, 
but  still  more  through  the  perfection  of  the  art  of  deceit,  the 
skill  acquired  in  giving  the  purchaser  the  impression  that  he  is 
getting  a  good  bargain.^  To  the  first  type  there  belong  Corsica, 
part  of  Sardinia,  Montenegro,  the  Italian  cities  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  in  general  nearly  all  primitive  civilizations.  To  the 
second  type,  on  the  other  hand,  belong  all  the  modern  civilized 
nations,  that  is  to  say,  those  among  whom  the  capitalistic  regime 
has  reached  its  complete  development.  The  distinction  between 
the  two  types  is  not,  however,  so  absolute  in  reality  as  it  is  in 
theory,  for  characteristics  belonging  to  the  two  different  types 
are  often  found  mixed  together  in  the  same  society. 

Now  since  pathologj',  in  the  social  field  as  in  the  physical, 
follows  in  the  pathway  of  physiologj',  we  discover  these  same 
two  means  of  contest  in  the  criminal  world.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  there  are  two  forms  of  criminality  manifesting  themselves 
in  our  day  side  by  side:  atavistic  criminality,  which  is  a  return 
on  the  part  of  certain  individuals  of  morbid  constitution  to  the 
violent  means  of  the  struggle  for  existence  now  suppressed  by 
civilization,  such  as  homicide,  robbery,  and  rape;  and  "evolu- 
tive" criminality,  which  is  no  less  perverted  in  intent  but  more 
civilized  in  the  means  employed,  for  in  place  of  violence  it  uses 
trickery  and  deceit.^  Into  the  first  class  of  criminals  fall  only  a 
few  individuals,  fatally  predisposed  to  crime;  into  the  second 
any  one  may  come  who  has  not  a  character  strong  enough  to 
resist  the  evil  influences  in  his  environment. 

Sighele  rightly  observes  that  the  same  division  occurs  in  the 
two  forms  of  "collective  criminality,"  which  are  to  be  found, 
the  one  in  the  upper  and  the  other  in  the  lower  ranks  of  society. 
On  the  one  side  are  the  rich  or  well-to-do,  who  in  politics  and 
business  sell  their  votes  and  influence,  and  by  the  aid  of  intrigue, 
deceit,  and  speculation  steal  money  from  the  public.  On  the 
other  hand  are  the  poor  and  ignorant,  who,  in  anarchist  plots, 

*  Ferrero,  "Violenti  e  Frodolenti  in  Romagna,"  in  "II  Mondo  Criminale 
Italiano,"  Milan,  1894. 

2  Sighele,  "DelinquenzaSettaria,"  Milan,  1898. 


46  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§26 

in  demonstrations,  and  in  insurrections,  attempt  to  revolt 
against  the  situation  into  which  they  are  forced  and  the  wicked- 
ness of  those  in  high  places.  The  first  of  these  two  forms  is  es- 
sentially modern  and  evolved,  the  second  is  atavistic,  brutal, 
violent;  the  former  is  a  thing  of  the  brain,  and  proceeds  by  cun- 
ning device,  like  imposture,  misappropriation,  or  forgery;  the 
latter  is  a  thing  of  the  muscles,  and  works  by  violent  means, 
like  insurrection,  bomb-throwing,  or  assassination.  Italy  in  the 
last  few  years  has  offered  only  too  frequently  the  sad  spectacle 
of  the  simultaneous  breaking  out  of  both  forms  of  criminality. 
On  the  one  hand,  we  have  had  in  Sicily  brigandage  and  famine 
riots,  to  which  a  pious  or  interested  lie  has  given  another  name 
and  ascribed  other  causes,  and  at  the  same  time  we  have  seen  at 
Rome,  in  connection  with  the  bank  scandals,  the  gross  immo- 
rahty  of  the  wealthy  classes. 

I  have  given  in  my  "Homme  Criminel  "  examples  of  crimes 
of  blood  committed  in  the  Middle  Ages  by  special  associations. 
But  it  may  be  asked,  "Why,  if  in  ancient  times  these  criminal 
associations  existed  everywhere,  have  they  persisted  in  certain 
countries  only,  disappearing  from  the  others?"  The  answer  is 
easy  if  we  consider  the  partially  civilized  condition  of  the  peoples, 
and  especially  the  condition  of  the  governments  which  maintain 
and  foster  this  barbarism,  the  first  and  continual  source  of  these 
perverted  associations.  "The  more  governments  are  organized 
as  parties,"  says  d'Azeglio  very  truly,  "the  more  will  parties 
organize  themselves  into  governments."  When  the  royal  post- 
office  violated  the  privacy  of  letters,  and,  bargaining  with  the 
thieves,  allowed  them  full  liberty  for  all  their  excesses  in  broth- 
els and  prisons,  the  very  necessities  of  the  situation  contributed 
to  protect  the  Camorrist,  for  he  was  the  one  person  who  could 
carry  a  letter  safely,  protect  one  from  assassination,  ransom  a 
stolen  object  at  a  fair  price,  or  even  pronounce,  in  minor  matters, 
judgments  doubtless  as  just  as,  and  certainly  quicker  and  less 
costly  than,  those  offered  by  the  regular  tribunals.  The  Camorra 
was  a  kind  of  natural  adaptation  to  the  unhappy  circumstances 
of  a  people  rendered  barbarous  by  bad  government. 

Brigandage,  in  its  turn,  has  often  been  a  kind  of  wild  justice 
against  oppressors.  In  the  period  of  serfdom  in  Russia,  the 
moujiks,  indifferent  to  life  and  embittered  by  constant  suffering 


§26]  CIVILIZATION,  BARBARISM,  ETC.  47 

for  which  no  one  cared,  were  all  ready  to  avenge  themselves  by 
homicide,  as  is  proved  to  us  by  a  song  made  public  by  Dixon. 
"There  is  no  great  Russian  family,"  says  the  well-known  author 
of  the  work  on  European  prisons,  "which  does  not  include  in  its 
history  the  violent  death  of  one  of  its  members."  The  immo- 
bilization of  capital  and  avarice  drove  the  rich  men  of  southern 
Italy  to  usury  and  unbelievable  plundering  of  the  poor  peasants. 

"In  Fondi,"  writes  Jorioz,  "many  became  brigands  on  ac- 
count of  the  extortions  of  the  mayor,  Amante.  Coppa,  Masini, 
and  Tortora  were  driven  to  brigandage  by  the  way  their  in- 
habitants were  abused  with  impunity."  "The  peasants  of 
southern  Italy,"  said  Govone  to  the  investigating  committee, 
"see  in  the  brigand  the  avenger  of  the  injustice  with  which 
society  overwhelms  them.  The  dissensions  between  rich  and 
poor  over  the  division  of  certain  lands  which  formerly  belonged 
to  ancient  barons  but  of  which  the  title  was  now  in  doubt,  or 
which  had  been  promised  to  all,  especially  to  the  poor  farmers; 
the  hatred  which  divided  the  few  representatives  of  the  lesser 
nobility  in  the  communes  of  southern  Italy;  and  the  acts  of 
vengeance  practiced  against  the  clients  of  one  or  another  — 
these  were  the  principal  causes  of  brigandage.  Of  124  com- 
munes in  Basilicata  there  were  only  44  without  a  brigand,  and 
these  were  the  only  ones  where  the  administration  was  in  the 
hands  of  honest  mayors.  Of  the  two  communes,  Bomba  and 
Montazzoli,  near  Chieti,  the  first,  where  the  poor  were  well 
treated,  had  no  brigands,  w^hile  the  second,  where  they  were 
abused,  had  a  great  number  of  brigands."  "  In  the  small  estates 
of  southern  Italy,"  observes  Villari  very  truly,  "the  Middle 
Ages  still  exist  in  the  midst  of  modern  civilization,  only  in  place 
of  the  ancient  baron  we  have  to-day  the  plebeian  creditor." 
"We  have  in  Sicily,"  writes  Franchetti,  "a  class  of  peasants 
who  are  almost  slaves  of  the  soil;  a  second  class,  consisting  of 
persons  who  consider  themselves  superior  to  the  law;  and  a 
third,  and  this  the  most  numerous,  who  regard  the  law  as  use- , 
less  and  have  exalted  to  the  dignity  of  a  principle  the  custom 
of  securing  justice  for  themselves  by  their  own  efforts.  And 
where  the  majesty  of  the  law  is  misunderstood  and  despised, 
its  representatives  cannot  be  respected.  The  public  official  in 
Sicily  is  flattered  and  fawned  upon  so  long  as  the  originators 
of  the  abuses  and  tyrannies  there  hope  to  have  him  for  an  accom- 
plice, or  at  least  as  a  silent  spectator  of  their  misdeeds;  but  as 
soon  as  a  man  is  discovered  who  is  faithful  to  his  duty,  he  is  de- 
tested, hunted,  assailed,  and  opposed  by  every  possible  means." 

"After  the  abolition  of  feudalism,"  continues  Franchetti  in 


i 


48  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§26 

another  place,  "the  external  form  of  the  social  relationships 
had  to  change,  even  if  the  real  nature  of  those  relationships 
did  not.  The  absolute  power  of  the  great  had  ceased  to  be  a 
legal  institution,  together  with  the  jurisdiction  and  police  power 
of  the  nobility.  The  instrument  which  must  now  be  employed 
to  cover  up  abuses  was  the  officer  of  the  state  or  city.  But 
bribery  did  not  always  suffice  to  secure  his  connivance;  it  was 
necessary  to  employ  special  artifice.  Some  device  must  be 
used  to  acquire  or  retain  control  over  those  whose  economic 
condition  did  not  directly  reduce  them  to  practical  slavery. 
Brute  force  had  to  give  place,  in  part,  to  trickery  and  cunning. 
.  .  .  But  for  all  that,  violence  was  not  done  away  with,  at 
least  in  a  large  part  of  the  island.  Nothing  had  come  to  break 
up  the  ancient  traditions,  and  the  instruments  for  carrying  them 
into  effect  had  not  ceased  to  exist.  The  former  officers  of  the 
feudal  barons,  though  thrust  to  one  side,  were  still  there,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  men  who  had  already  committed  some  crime, 
or  were  ready  to  do  so,  and  who  could  not  fail  to  be  numerous 
in  a  country  where  the  opportunity  for  crime  and  the  power- 
lessness  of  the  law  were  traditional.  But  now  the  officers,  like 
the  criminals,  plied  their  trade  on  their  own  account,  and  who- 
ever wanted  their  aid  had  to  treat  with  them  both."  ^ 

"The  word  malandrino  in  Sicily  loses  its  significance  as  a 
term  of  infamy  and  comes  to  be  used  among  the  people  as  a 
laudatory  designation,  proudly  borne  by  many  honorable  per- 
sons. '  I  am  a  brigand  {malandrino) '  means  for  them  that  the 
speaker  claims  to  be  a  brave  man,  afraid  of  nothing,  especially 
not  afraid  of  justice,  which  they  confuse  with  the  government, 
or,  rather,  with  the  police."  ^ 

This  false  conception  of  morals,  this  lack  of  perception  of  the 
distance  between  honesty  and  double-dealing,  explains  how  it 
is  that  the  brigand  finds  accomplices  among  the  peasants  and 
even  among  the  proprietors,  with  whom  he  lives  and  who  re- 
gard crime  as  a  new  means  of  speculation.  This  state  of  things, 
according  to  the  reports  of  the  prefects,  is  the  worst  plague  in 
Sicily,  for  while  the  real  brigands  who  roam  the  country  are  few 
in  number,  at  certain  times  they  become  legion,  reinforced  by 
their  peasant  auxiliaries.  Further,  the  great  proprietors  them- 
selves make  use  of  the  brigands  for  the  purpose  of  exacting  ran- 
soms, annulling  wills,  and  establishing  their  tyranny  over  their 

1  Franchetti,  "Condizioni  Politiche  e  Amministrative  della  Sicilia," 
Florence. 

2  Tomassi-Crudeli,  op.  cit. 


§26]  CIVILIZATION,  BARBARISM,  ETC.  49 

fellow-citizens.  From  this  comes  also  their  repugnance  to  laying 
information,  which  seems  to  them  more  immoral  than  murder 
itself,  so  that  a  dying  man  may  conceal  the  name  of  his  mur- 
derer to  the  last.  It  is  not  homicide  that  arouses  their  aversion, 
but  the  law.  Accordingly,  in  the  few  cases  in  which  accusation 
is  brought,  the  crime  still  goes  generally  without  punishment. 
Thus  in  the  province  of  Naples,  of  150  brigands  taken  with  arms 
in  their  hands,  107  were  acquitted  by  the  jury,  and  only  7  con- 
victed.^ The  situation  is  the  same  in  the  Romagna,  as  Alfred 
Comandini  has  shown  us,^  and,  according  to  Bourde  and  Bour- 
net,  in  Corsica  also. 

"The  cause  of  all  our  ills,"  writes  Comandini,  "is  the  abuse 
of  wine,  the  wide-spread  custom  of  carrying  arms,  and  the 
political  associations  that  have  come  down  as  a  tradition  from 
the  despotic  times  when  all  classes  took  part  in  them  even  at  the 
peril  of  their  lives.  Their  aspirations  were  honorable,  but  very 
often  they  favored  the  escape  of  a  prisoner,  because,  if  arrested, 
he  might  betray  them.  These  associations  have  no  longer 
any  political  or  educative  aim,  not  even  that  of  mutual  assist- 
ance. They  afford  oftenest  only  an  occasion  for  drinking  to- 
gether, generally  at  the  expense  of  the  richer  members,  and  this 
usually  degenerates  into  fighting  and  brawling,  in  which  from 
their  traditional  duty  of  aiding  one  another  large  numbers  are 
frequently  involved." 

But  even  more  significant  than  the  situation  in  the  Romagna 
is  the  example  which  Corsica  gives  of  an  unconscious  criminality, 
derived  from  social-historical  conditions,  as  well  as  from  the 
purely  historical  influences  already  pointed  out. 

"The  frequency  of  murders  committed  out  of  revenge," 
writes  Bournet,^  "  is  known  to  all  the  world,  but  it  is  not  so  well 
known  how  trivial  the  causes  often  are.  That  a  dog  belonging 
to  a  Tafani  was  killed  by  a  Rocchino  caused  the  death  of  eleven 
members  of  the  two  families.  In  1886  there  were  135  attacks 
upon  persons,  or  1  to  200  inhabitants;  that  is  to  say,  four  times 
more  than  in  the  department  of  the  Seine.  Of  these  135  at- 
tacks, 52  were  made  as  a  result  of  quarrels  and  brawls.  No 
witness  can  be  made  to  testify.  In  Palermo  there  were  60 
persons  present  at  a  crime,  all  of  whom  swore  that  they  had 
seen  nothing." 

»  Jorioz,  "II  Brigantaggio,"  1875, 

»  "Le  Romagne,"  Verona,  1881. 

3  Boumet,  "Criminality  en  Corse,"  1887,  in  "Archivio  di  Psich.,"  VIII. 


50  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§26 

Bourde,  following  the  reports  of  the  constabulary,  estimates 
the  number  of  bandits  at  from  500  to  600. 

"It  all  comes  back  to  this,"  he  says,  "that  the  peasants  in 
remote  villages,  who  are  enemies  to  the  chief  of  the  clan,  are  per- 
suaded that  there  is  no  justice.  The  Corsicans  are  very  proud, 
scorn  physical  labor,  and  till  the  soil  only  unwillingly.  They 
are  better  endowed  intellectually  than  morally,  and  have  a  way 
of  their  own  of  regarding  good  fortune  and  conscience.  Their 
organization  is  very  similar  to  the  Roman  patrician  system. 
Fifteen  or  twenty  families  rule  all  the  rest,  some  having  control 
of  only  a  hundred  votes,  others  having  thousands  of  electors 
to  express  their  will.  For  two  hundred  years  fifty  families 
have  been  devoted  to  a  single  one.  Independent  life  is  impos- 
sible, for  he  who  stands  alone  comes  to  nothing.  The  members 
of  a  family  risk  their  lives  with  a  sublime  self-abnegation  for 
the  sake  of  one  of  their  number.  Two  consciences  struggle 
for  supremacy  in  the  island,  the  modern  conscience,  inspired 
by  the  principles  of  right  and  equity,  and  the  ancient  Corsican 
conscience,  which  cannot  raise  itself  above  the  interests  of  the 
family  association.  The  latter  generally  prevails,  and  the  ef- 
fects of  it  were  seen  in  the  proceedings  of  the  jury  which  valued 
the  land  condemned  for  the  railways.  The  jury,  presided  over 
by  Casablanca,  the  chief  of  the  most  powerful  party  in  the 
island,  made  itself  notorious  by  its  partiality.  Benedetti,  an 
enemy  of  the  party,  received  2000  francs  for  a  vineyard  of  17 
ares,  while  a  certain  Virgitti,  a  follower  of  Casablanca's,  re- 
ceived 13,000  francs  for  a  vineyard  of  19  ares,  and  so  on.  In 
Corsica  even  the  victims  thought  these  injustices  natural,  and 
would  have  practiced  them  themselves  if  they  had  had  the 
power.  The  justices  of  the  peace  are  all-powerful,  but  very 
partial  and  devoted  to  the  interest  of  the  party  that  has  elected 
them.  In  making  up  the  voting  lists  they  do  as  they  like, 
striking  off  the  names  of  those  who  might  injure  them,  and  add- 
ing the  names  of  those  who  may  be  useful;  and  this  in  spite  of 
the  courts  of  appeal  and  cassation.  Serious  crimes  not  infre- 
quently result.  The  artifices  employed  at  elections  are  numerous 
and  varied,  and  often  have  a  tragic  ending.  At  Palneca  the 
mayor,  Bartoli,  three  times  postponed  the  voting,  waiting  for 
a  favorable  moment.  The  fourth  time  (Sept.  28,  1884)  he  and 
his  partisans  fortified  themselves  early  in  the  morning  in  the 
town  hall,  and  when  their  adversaries  arrived  they  could  not 
enter.  These,  exasperated,  attempted  to  storm  the  place,  but 
were  repulsed  with  fire-arms.  All  day  shots  were  exchanged 
from  one  house  to  the  other,  with  deaths  and  wounds  resulting. 
Bartoli's  opponents  told  the  prefect  that  they  'would  rather 


§26] 


CIVILIZATION,  BARBARISM,  ETC. 


51 


die  than  endure  such  slavery.'  In  1885  in  all  France  there  were 
42,523  misdemeanors  in  rural  districts.  Corsica  alone  had 
13,405  of  them,  nearly  a  third!"  ^ 

The  progress  of  civilization,  by  endlessly  multiplying  needs 
and  desires,  and  by  encouraging  sensuality  through  the  accu- 
mulation of  wealth,  brings  a  flood  of  alcoholics  and  general 
paralytics  into  the  insane  asylums,  and  crowds  the  prisons  with 
offenders  against  property  and  against  decency.  Statistics 
show  us,  in  fact,  that  most  crimes  of  this  character  committed 
in  the  great  cities  among  the  cultivated  classes  are  on  the 
increase.^  Sighele  shows  us  for  his  part  that  modern  collective 
criminality  has  the  same  characteristics. 

1  Bourde,  "En  Corse,"  1887.    Arch,  di  Psich.,  VIII. 


Crimes 
against 
persons 

Suicides 

Thefts 

Offences 
against 
decency 

Prussia,  1854 
"       1859 

8.9  % 
16.65% 

.43% 
■52% 

88.41% 
78.17% 

2.26% 
4.68% 

France : 


(Oettingen,  op.  cit.) 


From  1831  to  1835: 


Indecent  assaults 
upon 

Abortions 

Infanti- 
cides 

Suicides 

Thefts 

Homicides 

Adults 

Children 

2.95% 

3.64% 

.19% 

2.25% 

3.83% 

14.40% 

14.40% 

From  1856  to  1860: 


6.20% 


20.59% 

.97% 

67.45% 

6.18% 

11.83% 

11.83% 


The  ratio  of  burglaries  and  highway  robberies  in  Corsica  to 

those  in  France  was as  0.38    to 


Of  rapes 
"  parricides  and  bankruptcies 

"  extortions 

"  rapes  of  young  girls  .... 
"  homicides 


'    0.50 
'    0. 
'    3. 
'23. 
'32. 


(Robiquet,  "Les  Crimes  en  Corse,"  1862.) 


52  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§26 

Confronted  by  these  two  forms  of  collective  criminality  it  is 
natural  to  ask  ourselves,  "Why  does  the  criminality  of  the  rich 
take  the  form  of  cunning,  while  that  of  the  poor  is  based  upon 
violence?"  The  answer  is  easy.  The  upper  classes  represent 
what  is  really  modern,  while  the  lower  still  belong  in  thought  and 
feeling  to  a  relatively  distant  past.  It  is,  then,  logical  and  natu- 
ral that  the  former  should  show  the  result  of  modern  develop- 
ment in  their  collective  criminality,  and  that  the  latter  should 
remain,  on  the  contrary,  still  \'iolent,  not  to  say  absolutely 
atavistic. 

Bagehot  has  said: 

"  In  order  to  be  persuaded  that  fineness  of  feeling  diminishes 
in  proportion  as  one  descends  the  social  scale,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  visit  savage  peoples;  it  is  enough  to  talk  with  the  English 
poor,  or  even  with  one's  own  servants."  ^ 

In  the  second  place,  if  the  criminality  of  the  rich  is  a  patho- 
logical phenomenon  indicative  of  the  defectiveness  of  the  an- 
cient social  organization  that  has  come  down  to  us,  that  of  the 
lower  class,  on  the  contrary,  may  appear  to  be  the  premature 
announcement  of  a  new  era  about  to  arise.  It  is  for  this  reason 
that  the  former  bears  all  the  marks  of  senile  cunning,  while  the 
latter  has  the  reckless  audacity  of  youthful  strength.  Finally, 
the  rich  constitute  the  majority,  if  not  in  number,  at  least  in 
power  and  in  the  strength  of  their  position.  The  poor,  on  the 
other  hand,  represent  the  minority.  Now  it  is  characteristic  of 
all  minorities  to  be  bolder  and  more  ^'iolent  than  the  majority. 
They  have  to  conquer,  while  the  majority  have  only  to  keep  what 
they  have  gained.  More  energy  is  called  out  by  the  chance  to 
attain  something,  or  reach  a  distant  goal,  than  by  the  need  of 
guarding  a  present  possession.  Victory  softens  and  enervates, 
while  the  desire  to  conquer  increases  the  courage  a  hundred- 
fold.^  It  is,  in  fact,  with  a  minority  as  it  is  with  a  single  indi- 
vidual who  is  attacked  by  a  number  of  persons.  Such  a  one 
shows  a  degree  of  strength  which  he  would  not  at  all  manifest 
if  others  were  at  hand  to  aid  him.     Necessity  increases  the  de- 

*  Bagehot,  "Lois  Scientifiques  du  Developpement  des  Nations,"  Paris, 
1880. 

*  Sighele,  op.  cit. 


§27]  CIVILIZATION,  BARBARISM,  ETC.  63 

fensive  power  of  those  who  stand  alone  and  feel  their  weakness. 
The  instinct  of  self-preservation,  aroused  by  danger,  gives  to 
the  organism  the  courage  of  despair.  In  the  field  of  crime  this 
natural  law  cannot  fail  to  show  itself  among  the  lower  classes, 
who  have  to  contend  against  great  odds  and  make  up  for  their 
natural  weakness  by  the  boldness  and  violence  of  the  means 
they  employ. 

However  painful  it  may  be  to  admit  that  civilization  has 
succeeded  only  in  changing  the  kind  of  crimes,  and  perhaps  in 
increasing  their  number,  the  fact  itself  is  easy  to  understand, 
when  one  sees  how  much  more  advantageous  the  progress  of 
education  has  been  for  attack  than  for  defense. 

§  27.   Congestion  of  Population 

To  the  reasons  which  we  have  just  enumerated  must  be  added 
others  of  a  different  order.  On  account  of  railways,  and  govern- 
mental and  commercial  concentration,  civilization  tends  con- 
tinually to  make  the  great  centers  of  population  still  larger  and 
to  overpopulate  the  principal  cities.  And,  as  is  well  known,  it 
is  in  these  that  are  found  crowded  together  the  greatest  number 
of  habitual  criminals.  This  unfortunate  concentration  of  crime 
is  to  be  explained  by  the  greater  profits  or  the  greater  security 
which  the  large  cities  offer  to  criminals.  But  this,  perhaps,  is 
not  the  only  reason,  for  if  in  the  cities  vigilance  is  more  relaxed, 
prosecution  is  more  active  and  systematic;  and  if  temptations 
and  inducements  to  crime  are  more  numerous,  so  are  the  oppor- 
tunities for  honest  labor,  I  believe  that  there  is  another  influ- 
ence at  work  which  is  more  powerful  still.  The  very  congestion 
of  population  by  itself  gives  an  irresistible  impulse  toward  crime 
and  immorality. 

"There  is,"  writes  Bertillon,  "a  kind  of  violent  and  morbid 
tendency  that  moves  us  to  reproduce  the  feelings  and  move- 
ments which  we  see  around  us.  Many  causes  contribute  to  this: 
youth,  femininity,  and  above  all  (as  Sarcey  says)  the  mutual 
contact  of  sentient  persons,  which  gives  added  strength  to 
the  natural  impressions  that  each  one  has  by  himself.  The 
air  is  filled  with  the  dominant  opinion,  and  transmits  it  like  a 
contagion." 


54  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§28 

It  has  been  observed  that  even  the  crowding  together  of 
horses  develops  the  tendency  to  sodomy.  All  these  causes, 
together  with  the  parallelism  that  always  exists  between  the 
development  of  the  sexual  organs  and  that  of  the  brain,  and 
also  with  better  nutrition,  partly  explain  for  us  the  great  in- 
crease of  crimes  of  sensuality,  a  characteristic  of  modern  crimin- 
ality harmonizing  with  the  constant  increase  of  prostitution  so 
marked  in  the  large  cities.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  women  are 
more  criminal  in  the  more  civilized  countries.  They  are  almost 
always  drawn  into  crime  by  a  false  pride  about  their  poverty, 
by  a  desire  for  luxury,  and  by  masculine  occupations  and  edu- 
cation, which  give  them  the  means  and  opportunity  to  commit 
crimes  of  the  same  character  as  the  men,  such  as  forgeries, 
crimes  against  the  laws  of  the  press,  and  swindling.  Civiliza- 
tion increases  the  number  of  certain  crimes,  just  as  it  increases 
certain  forms  of  insanity  ^  (paralysis,  alcoholism),  because  it  in- 
creases the  use  of  stimulants,  which,  while  almost  unknown  to 
savages,  have  become  a  veritable  necessity  to  the  civilized 
world.  Thus  we  see  to-day  in  England  and  America,  that  in 
addition  to  the  abuse  of  alcohol  and  tobacco  there  is  creeping  in 
that  of  opium  and  even  of  ether;  and  that  in  France  the  con- 
sumption of  brandy  grew  from  eight  liters  in  1840  to  thirty  in 
1870. 

§  28.  The  Press 

Civilization,  by  favoring  the  creation  and  dissemination  of 
newspapers,  which  are  always  a  chronicle  of  vices  and  crimes, 
and  often  are  nothing  else,  has  furnished  a  new  cause  of  crime  by 

*  Taking,  for  example,  the  statistics  of  the  most  advanced  country  in 
the  world  —  the  United  States  —  we  see  in  the  valuable  Census  of  the 
United  States  (Compendium  of  the  Tenth  Census  (1880)  of  the  United 
States,  Pt.  II,  p.  1659)  that  the  insane,  who  numbered  15,610  in  1850, 
24,042  in  1860,  and  37,432  in  1870,  had  increased  by  1880  to  91,997;  while 
the  population,  which  was  23,191,876  in  1850,  reached  38,558,371  in  1870, 
and  50,155,783  in  1880.  That  is  to  say,  while  the  population  doubled 
itself  in  thirty  years,  the  number  of  the  insane  increased  six  times;  further, 
in  the  last  ten  years  the  population  increased  30%,  but  the  number  of  the 
insane  155%.  —  In  England  and  Wales  there  were  in  1859  18.6  insane 
persons  to  the  10,000;  m  1885,  28.9;  in  1893,  39.  —  In  Italy  ("Archivio 
Italiano  per  le  Malattie  Nervose,"  1888,  Verga)  there  were  in  1874  51  of 
the  insane  to  100,000;  in  1877,  54.1;  in  1880,  61.25;  in  1883,  67.7;  in 
1885,  66.0;  in  1888,  74. 


§28]  CIVILIZATION,  BARBARISM.  ETC.  55 

inciting  criminals  to  emulation  and  imitation.  It  is  sad  to  think 
that  the  crime  of  Troppmann  brought  the  circulation  of  the 
Petit  Journal  up  to  500,000  and  that  of  the  Figaro  to  210,000, 
and  it  was  doubtless  for  this  reason  that  this  crime  was  imitated 
almost  immediately  in  Belgium  and  in  Italy.  Note  the  following 
strange  crime.  During  the  absence  of  the  proprietor  R.  his 
strong  box  was  forced.  His  assistant  was  immediately  ar- 
rested and  the  exact  sum  taken  was  found  upon  him,  —  indeed, 
the  assistant  admitted  of  his  own  accord  that  he  had  taken  the 
money,  but  without  evil  intent.  He  had,  in  fact,  without  the 
necessity  of  breaking  into  the  safe,  much  larger  sums  under  his 
control,  and  this  with  the  consent  of  his  employer,  who  had 
great  confidence  in  him.  He  had  committed  the  crime,  he  said, 
only  in  order  to  try  a  trick  that  he  had  read  the  day  before  in  the 
newspaper.  His  employer,  knowing  him  to  be  a  constant  reader 
of  the  papers,  declared  that  he  accepted  this  explanation,  and  as 
soon  as  the  assistant  had  been  acquitted  reinstated  him  in  his 
position.  In  Paris  in  1873  one  Grimal  decided  to  commit  a 
crime  in  order  to  get  himself  talked  of,  like  certain  great  criminals 
of  whose  exploits  he  read  in  the  newspapers.  With  this  aim  he 
committed  arson,  but  notwithstanding  his  confession  his  guilt 
was  not  believed.  He  maltreated  his  wife  with  the  result  that 
she  died,  and  avowed  himself  the  cause  of  her  death,  but  he 
came  out  of  this  affair  also  with  the  verdict  of  "not  guilty.'* 
Then  it  was  that  the  case  of  the  widow  Gras  fell  under  his  eye» 
and  in  order  to  imitate  it  he  threw  nitric  acid  into  a  friend's 
face,  thereby  killing  him,  and  then  went  about  telling  everyone 
of  his  crime.  The  next  day  he  first  hastened  to  read  the  ac- 
count of  the  murder  in  the  Petit  Journal,  and  immediately 
afterwards  went  to  give  himself  up  as  a  prisoner.  It  was  per- 
fectly obvious  that  reading  criminal  tales  and  various  other 
reports  in  the  papers  suggested  to  him  the  idea  of  his  crimes. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  those  novels  which  deal  almost  ex- 
clusively with  the  acts  of  criminals,  like  those  at  present  fash- 
ionable in  France.  Thus  in  1866  two  young  men,  Brouiller  and 
Serreau,  strangled  a  tradeswoman.  When  arrested  they  de- 
clared that  the  crime  had  been  suggested  to  them  by  reading  a 
novel  by  Delmons.    "Some,"  says  La  Place  very  truly,  "have 


56 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REIVIEDIES  [§  28 


received  from  nature  an  organism  inclined  to  evil,  but  their  in- 
clination is  turned  into  action  only  by  hearing  or  seeing  the  mis- 
deeds of  others,"  Some  years  ago  a  package  of  ten  stolen  bonds 
was  found  done  up  in  a  paper,  upon  which  the  thief  had  written 
these  gloomy  lines  taken  from  a  novel  by  Bourrasque:  "Con- 
science is  a  word  invented  to  frighten  fools  and  to  make  them 
submissive  in  their  misery.  Thrones  and  millions  are  only  to 
be  gained  by  violence  and  fraud."  In  the  great  cities  many  are 
incited  to  crime  in  the  places  where  cheap  lodgings  may  be 
obtained  for  the  night.  "Many,"  says  Mayhew,  "are  brought 
to  the  lodging-house  through  being  thrown  out  of  work,  and 
from  the  lodging-house  are  drawn  into  theft." 

The  poUtical  laws  and  the  new  forms  of  popular  government 
imposed  by  modern  civilization,  and  in  part  also  by  a  pretended 
liberty,  favor  in  every  way  the  formation  of  societies,  under 
the  pretext  of  social  amusements,  administrative  enterprises,  or 
mutual  aid.  The  example  of  Palermo,  Leghorn,  Ravenna, 
Bologna,  the  history  of  Luciani  and  Pagge,  and  that  of  Crispi 
and  Nicotera,  show  us  how  short  the  distance  is  from  such  gener- 
ous enterprises  to  the  most  immoral  violence  and  even  to  crime. 
In  North  America  some  societies  have  gone  so  far  as  to  commit 
crime  with  impunity,  and  in  two  of  the  most  flourishing  cities 
(New  York  and  San  Francisco)  even  officially,  and  have  almost 
succeeded  in  legitimizing  their  frauds.  The  political  revolutions 
which  are  more  frequent  with  these  forms  of  government  cause 
an  increase  of  certain  crimes,  either  because  they  bring  together 
crowds  of  people  or  because  they  excite  violent  passions.  "  Spain 
is  a  prison,"  says  an  illustrious  Spaniard,  "where  it  is  possible 
to  commit  any  crime  whatever  with  impunity,  pro\nded  one 
cries  in  favor  of  this  or  that,  or  gives  to  his  crime  a  political 
appearance."  The  number  of  criminals  acquitted  there  rose  in 
five  years  to  4065,  four  times  what  they  were  in  France.^  It  is 
not  astonishing,  then,  that  in  Spain  crimes  are  proportionately 
more  numerous  than  elsewhere. 

Wars,  like  revolutions,  increase  the  number  of  crimes,  be- 
cause of  the  increased  massing  and  contact  of  men,  —  as  was 
proved  in  Italy  in  1866  (Curcio),  and  in  North  America  during 
»  Armengol,  "Estudios  Penitenciarios,"  1873. 


§29]  CIVILIZATION,  BARBARISM,  ETC.  57 

and  after  the  Civil  War.^  Sexual  crimes,  which  before  the  Revo- 
lution of  1848  in  France  were  from  100  to  200,  increased  first  to 
280  and  then  to  505,  and  with  them  illegitimate  births  increased 
also. 

After  all  this  it  is  easy  to  comprehend,  without  the  necessity 
of  citing  figures,  how  much  crime  is  increased  when  the  criminals 
are  herded  together  in  prisons,  where,  according  to  the  avowal 
of  the  criminals  themselves,  the  greatest  wickedness  is  a  title  to 
glory,  and  virtue  is  a  badge  of  shame.  Civilization,  by  multi- 
plying great  penitentiaries,  gives  by  that  same  means  a  greater 
extension  to  crime.  This  is  the  more  true  since  a  blamable 
solicitude  has  introduced  charitable  and  philanthropic  institu- 
tions (reform  schools,  etc.)  which  suffice  to  undermine  the 
character  of  respectable  individuals,  but  not  to  soften  the  heart 
of  a  hardened  culprit.  We  shall  see  how,  after  the  introduction 
of  the  ticket-of -leave,  there  was  noted  in  1861-62  in  England  a 
great  increase  of  delinquents,  as  had  already  occurred  in  1834 
after  the  inauguration  of  the  transportation  system.^  The  houses 
of  correction,  which  seem  inspired  by  a  truly  humanitarian  feel- 
ing of  charity,  through  the  single  fact  of  their  bringing  together 
a  mass  of  depraved  individuals  exercise  an  influence  quite  other 
than  salutary  and  almost  always  directly  opposite  to  that  for 
which  they  were  instituted.  It  is  worth  noting  here  that  the 
illustrious  Olivecrona  attributed  the  great  number  of  Swedish 
recidivists  to  the  vices  of  the  penitentiary  system  and  to  the 
custom  of  submitting  young  ofiFenders  to  the  same  discipline  as 
the  adults.^ 

§  29.  New  Crimes 

Civilization  introduces  every  day  new  crimes,  less  atrocious 
perhaps  than  the  old  ones  but  none  the  less  injurious.  Thus  in 
London  the  thief  substitutes  cunning  for  violence;  in  place  of 
burglary  he  practices  purloining  by  means  of  special  apparatus; 

1  Corre,  op.  cit.  p.  78. 

2  From  2649  in  1863-64,  the  criminals  increased  to  15,049  in  1873-74. 
In  the  colonies  to  which  those  convicted  for  crimes  of  violence  were  trans- 
ported, these  crimes  increased  until  they  were  half  as  numerous  as  all 
others,  while  in  England  they  remained  only  one-eighth  as  numerous. 
(Beltrano-ScaUa,  1874.) 

2  "Des  Causes  ce  la  Rgcidivie,"  Stockholm,  1873. 


58  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§29 

in  place  of  porch-climbing  he  uses  swindling  and  blackmail  by 
the  aid  of  the  press.  ^  Homicide  with  the  aim  of  getting  the 
benefit  of  life  insurance  is  an  example  of  a  new  form  of  crime 
committed  by  some  physicians,  and  favored  too  often  by  new 
advances  in  scientific  knowledge.  Thus  the  knowledge  that  the 
symptoms  of  arsenic  poisoning  are  similar  to  those  of  cholera 
suggested  to  two  doctors,  during  the  cholera  epidemic  in  Mag- 
deburg and  Monaco,  the  idea  of  first  insuring  and  then  poison- 
ing many  of  then-  patients.^  In  Vienna  a  new  crime  has  been 
invented  which  consists  in  appropriating  goods  that  have  been 
ordered  for  an  imaginary  society.^  The  anarchists  have  brought 
into  fashion  the  use  of  dynamite  against  persons  and  buildings. 
Recently  there  has  been  introduced  in  Chicago  the  electric 
bludgeon,  and  also  a  small  torpedo,  which,  being  slipped  into 
the  intended  victim's  pocket,  explodes  and  blows  him  to  pieces. 
Civilization,  by  relaxing  the  bonds  of  the  family,  not  only  in- 
creases the  number  of  foundling  asylums,  which  are  the  nurseries 
of  criminals,  but  also  multipUes  the  desertions  of  adults,  rapes, 
and  infanticides. 

Notwithstanding  these  unhappy  consequences,  we  must  not 
allow  ourselves  to  be  led  into  an  indiscriminate  condemnation 
of  the  fruitful  progress  of  civilization,  since  even  in  the  matter 
of  crime  the  change  has  not  been  altogether  prejudicial,  for,  if 
for  the  time  civilization  has  been  the  cause  of  the  increase  of 
crime,  it  has  certainly  mitigated  its  character.  On  the  other 
hand,  where  progress  has  reached  its  height  it  has  already  found 
means  of  treating  the  diseases  it  has  produced,  with  its  asy- 
lums for  the  criminal  insane,  its  system  of  separate  confinement 
in  the  penitentiaries,  its  industrial  institutions,  its  savings  banks, 
and  especially  its  societies  for  the  protection  of  children,  which 
prevent  crime  almost  from  the  cradle.     (See  Part  III.) 

»  "Quart.  Review,"  1871. 

»  Pettenkoffer,  "Theorie  der  Cholera,"  1871. 

»  Rundschau,  Vienna,  1876. 


CHAPTER  V 

DENSITY   OF   POPULATION  IMMIGRATION  AND   EMIGRATION  

BIRTH-RATE 

§  30.  Density  of  Poptilation 

THE  influence  of  civilization  in  reference  to  crime  may  be 
seen  better  by  examining  one  by  one  its  difiFerent  factors, 
and  in  the  first  place  that  of  density;  for  history  teaches  us  that 
crime  appears  only  when  a  certain  density  of  population  has 
been  reached. 

Prostitution,  assaults,  thefts  (as  Reclus,  Westermarck,  and 
Krapotkin  have  rightly  remarked),  show  themselves  but  rarely 
in  primitive  society ;  as  among  the  Veddahs,  who  assemble  only 
at  the  rainy  seasons,  and  among  certain  Australian  aborigines, 
who  meet  only  for  the  yam  harvest.  It  is  for  the  same  reason 
that  when  animals  are  not  associated  together  or  domesticated 
the  equivalent  of  crime  rarely  appears  among  them,  because 
their  brutal  instincts  lack  the  means  of  manifesting  themselves. 
When  circumstances  change,  and  the  formation  of  tribes  and 
clans  gives  opportunity  for  it,  crime,  which  has  hitherto  lain 
dormant,  breaks  out  with  violence.  Even  among  the  less  com- 
pact barbarous  societies  crime  is  relatively  rare,  even  if  more 
ferocious;  while  in  our  more  civilized  society  crime  multiplies, 
and  the  five  or  six  forms  of  crime  prevalent  among  barbarians 
have  become  with  us  legion. 

A  single  glance  at  the  thefts,  homicides,  and  political  upheav- 
als of  Europe  in  reference  to  density  of  population  shows  us 
that  (with  the  exception  of  some  contradictions,  the  result  of 
the  effect  of  temperature,  which  increases  homicides  and  insur- 
rections in  the  south  and  thefts  in  the  north)   theft  increases 


60 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§30 


with  densitj',  while  homicide  diminishes.  We  see,  in  fact,  in  the 
following  table,  that  of  seven  countries  having  a  low  density,  only 
two,  Spain  and  Hungary,  have  very  high  figures  for  homicide; 
and  of  eight  countries  having  a  maximum  density,  Italy  alone 
shows  a  great  number  of  homicides.  The  reverse  is  true  with 
regard  to  thefts.  With  regard  to  revolts  we  can  come  to  no 
immediate  conclusion;  for  we  see  in  countries  of  equal  density 
(Poland,  Austria,  Switzerland)  the  greatest  differences  in  the 
number  of  revolutions,  while  revolutions  are  lacking  in  other 
countries  wath  great  differences  of  density,  like  England,  Russia, 
and  Hungary.  In  the  Middle  Ages  Corsica,  with  a  very  sparse 
population,  had  a  great  number  of  revolutions,  forty-five  in  four 
centuries,  according  to  Ferrari. 

Cbimes  and  Density  en  European  Countbies 


Population 

Homicides  ^ 

Thefts  "  to 

Insurrections  * 

to  the 

Countries 

to  1,090,000 

100,000 

to  10,000,000 

square  mile 

inhabitants 

inhabitants 

inhabitants 

47 

Russia 

14 

85 

Sweden  and 

Norway 

13 

13 

85 

Denmark 

13 

13 

85 

Spain  * 

58 

53 

55 

132 

Portugal 

25 

80 

58 

158 

Austria  * 

25 

103 

5 

158 

Hungarj' 

75 

103 

5 

171 

Poland 

10 

13 

179 

Switzerland 

16 

ii4 

80 

184 

France  * 

18 

116 

16 

223 

Germany  * 

5 

200 

5 

259 

Italy  * 

96 

72 

30 

290 

England  * 

7 

136 

7 

316 

Ireland 

9 

91 

30 

420 

Belgium 

18 

134 

The  influence  of  density  of  population  appears  more  clearly 
in  our  country,  especially  if  one  examines  the  various  crimes  in 

1  "  Almanach  de  Gotha,"  1886-87. 
*  Fern,  "Omicidio,"  1895. 

I  fe^?'^'"?D  ^^^  Laschi,  "Le  Crime  Politique,"  Turin,  1895. 
Uodio.   'Relazione  dclla  Commissione  per  la  Statistica  Giudiziaria,"  189& 


30] 


DENSITY  OF  POPULATION 


61 


detail  with  reference  to  the  different  degrees  of  density.     In 
Italy  for  example,  we  find:  ^ 

Number  of  Crimes  to  100,000  Inhabitants 


Population  to  the 
sq.  kilometer 

Homicides 

Thefts 

Resistance 
to  police 

Rapes 

Swindling 

From    20  to  50 
50  "  100 
"      100  "  150 
"      150  "  200 
"      200  upwards 

11.0 
6.03 
6.0 
5.1 
3.5 

199.0 
144.4 
148.0 
153.0 
158.0 

23.7 
25.4 
23.5 
24.6 
29.5 

18.8 
16.4 
14.5 
12.3 

18.7 

52.6 
45.0 
58.5 
54.6 
50.4 

We  see,  therefore,  that  homicide  decreases  as  the  density 
increases,  especially  in  the  great  cities,  so  that  Milan,  Naples, 
Leghorn,  and  Genoa,  with  the  most  different  races  and  climates 
(Greek,  Celtic,  Ligurian),  give  a  like  decrease  in  the  number  of 
homicides;  and  on  the  contrary  we  see  the  number  regularly 
increase  where  the  density  is  least,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  hotter 
parts  of  the  country,  and  in  the  islands,  where  society  is  more 
barbarous  and  criminal  bands  more  common. 

Theft,  rape,  and  resistance  to  the  oflScers  of  the  law  also  di- 
minish with  the  increase  in  density,  to  rise  again  rapidly,  however, 
with  the  excessive  density  of  the  great  cities  (Padua,  Naples, 
Milan,  Venice).  Swindling  follows  an  irregular  course,  but 
nearly  always  in  the  direction  opposite  to  the  density,  —  a  fact 
which  arises  from  the  strong  participation  of  the  islands,  espe- 
cially Sardinia,  in  this  crime,  and  also  from  the  strong  bias  in 
favor  of  old  racial  customs  in  the  provinces  of  Forli  and  Bologna, 
where  swindling  is  widespread.  The  latter  place  is  proverbial 
for  swindling,  and  Dante  in  his  Inferno  makes  Venedico  say: 
"I  am  not  the  only  Bolognese  weeping  here;  this  whole  place  is 
full  of  them."  2 

So  also  in  the  recent  French  statistics  we  find  the  following:  * 

^  Bodio,  "Annuario  Statistico  Italiano,"  1894,  Rome. 

*  E  non  pur  to  qui  piango  Bolognese: 

Anzi  n'e  questo  luogo  tantq^pieno. 

»  Fern,  "Omicidio,"  1895. 


Canto  XVIII. 


62 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§30 


Population  to  the  square 
kilometer 

Number  of  crimes  to  100,000  inhabitants 

Thefts 

Homicides 

Rapes 

20  to    40 

40  "     60 

60  "    80  

80  "  100  

100  and  over 

63 

96 

100 

116 

196 

4.41 
1.42 
1.40 
1.20 

1.88 

19.0 
20.4 
19.0 
30.0 
34.0 

We  see  that  theft  becomes  more  and  more  frequent  as  the 
density  increases.  Homicides  and  rapes,  on  the  contrary,  show 
the  highest  proportion  with  the  minimum  or  the  maximum  of 
the  density.  This  contradiction  is  explained  by  the  fact  that 
where  the  population  is  most  compact  occur  the  great  indus- 
trial (Seine-Inferieure,  92)  and  political  (Paris,  18)  centers,  and 
ports  of  immigration  (Bo<iches-du-Rh6ne,  45),  where  the  oppor- 
tunities for  conflict  are  more  frequent;  and  where  there  is  the 
minimum  of  density  (Corsica,  200);  Lozere,  41;  Hautes-Alpes, 
24)  there  is  the  maximum  of  barbarism,  and  we  have  seen  that 
assaults  and  assassination  are  there  often  regarded  more  as 
necessities  than  as  crimes. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  political  insurrections,  as  I  have 
proved  in  my  "  Crime  Politique. "  A  study  of  the  revolutionary 
and  of  the  ultra-conservative  populations  of  the  French  depart- 
ments shows  that  the  former  are  always  more  numerous  in  the 
districts  where  the  density  is  greater.  In  studying  the  relation- 
ships of  the  density  of  population  and  the  monarchical  reaction 
in  France,  we  find  that  in  the  departments  with  the  denser  popu- 
lation popular  opinion  is  more  inclined  toward  republican  ideas. 
On  the  other  hand,  Basses-Alpes,  Landes,  Indre,  Cher,  and 
Lozere,  which  have  no  more  than  forty  inhabitants  to  the  square 
kilometer,  in  the  elections  of  1877-81-83  gave  a  high  percentage 
of  votes  to  the  monarchical  party.  The  same  is  true  in  Vendee, 
Nord,  Hautes-Pyrenees,  Gers,  Lot,  and  Aveyron,  which  have 
not  over  sixty  to  the  square  kilometer;  and  a  similar  phenome- 
non has  been  noticed  in  the  case  of  the  plebiscites  (Jacoby). 
When,  on  the  contrary,  the  population  reaches  a  high  degree  of 


§31]  DENSITY  OF  POPULATION  63 

density,  as  in  the  departments  of  the  Rhone,  the  Loire,  Seine-et- 
Oise,  and  Seine-Inferieure,  we  see  the  revolutionary  spirit  take 
on  a  great  development,  as  Jacoby  has  already  remarked  {o'p. 
cit.).  The  greatest  revolutionary  tendency  is  found  in  the  de- 
partments with  a  compact  population,  followed  by  those  with  a 
moderate  density;  while  in  the  departments  with  a  minimum 
density  the  conservatives  prevail. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  that  where  the  urban  population  is 
densest  political  agitation  is  also  most  frequent.  This  is  to 
be  noticed  especially  in  Paris,  where,  as  VioUet-le-Duc  writes,^ 
"the  whole  civilized  world  empties  its  scum,  making  a  cos- 
mopolitan city  where  a  mob  without  country,  principles,  or 
traditions  presumptuously  directs  the  elections,  and  takes  ad- 
vantage of  the  misfortunes  of  the  country  to  overturn  the 
government  and  put  itself  in  power."  Thus  it  was  that  after 
the  Commune,  out  of  36,809  individuals  arrested,  there  were 
1725  foreigners  and  25,648  provincials. 

"It  is  the  failing  of  countries  too  thickly  populated,"  con- 
cludes Maxime  du  Camp,  "  that  in  them  the  provincial  life  can 
be  developed  only  imperfectly. 

"Great  capitals  are  dangerous  for  the  political  peace.  They 
are  like  a  suction-pump:  they  draw  everything  in  and  let 
nothing  out.  France  has  too  big  a  head,  and  like  a  hydroceph- 
alous  patient  is  subject  to  real  outbursts  of  maniacal  fury. 
Such  an  outburst  was  the  Commune." 

On  the  whole  the  influence  of  race  and  climate  blots  out  that 
of  density,  but  the  influence  of  this  latter  is  still  to  be  detected, 
both  in  the  number  of  thefts,  which  it  increases,  and  of  homi- 
cides, which  it  diminishes. 

§  31.  Immigration  and  Emigration 

It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  there  exists  a  striking  contrast 
between  Italy  and  France,  a  complete  contradiction,  which, 
as  we  shall  see,  applies  to  wealth  as  well  as  to  crime.  In  Italy 
homicides  decrease  regularly  with  the  increase  in  density  of  the 
population,  while  in  France  they  increase  extraordinarily  when 
the  maximum  density  is  reached  (though  Paris,  to  be  sure,  in 

1  "M^moires  sur  la  Defense  de  Paris,"  1871. 


64  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§31 

this  regard  falls  below  Seine-et-Oise,  which  surrounds  it).  The 
contradiction  is,  however,  explicable.  The  situation  in  Italy  is 
due  to  the  increasing  influence  of  civilization  exercised  by  the 
great  centers,  which  diminishes  the  traditional  propensity  to 
regard  the  taking  of  life  in  revenge  as  a  duty  or  even  as  a  right; 
and  further  it  is  due  to  the  degree  of  what  Ferri  calls  "criminal 
saturation,"  caused  by  the  excessive  number  of  crimes  of  blood, 
so  great  as  to  be  incapable  of  further  increase.  The  contrast 
offered  by  France,  however,  is  due  to  the  special  condition  there 
produced  by  a  new  element,  namely,  immigration,  which  is 
lacking  in  Italy.  This  increases  the  density  of  the  population, 
it  is  true,  but  m  a  manner  particularly  fraught  with  conse- 
quences, since  it  introduces  into  the  country  more  than  1,000,000 
foreigners  at  an  age  and  under  conditions  which  render  them 
especially  prone  to  crime,  and  further  concentrates  the  process 
at  certain  points  only.  In  fact,  the  maximum  of  homicides,  45, 
is  given  by  Boftches-du-Rhone,  a  department  which  is  one  of 
the  great  centers  of  immigration,  having  50,000  Italian  resi- 
dents. If,  however,  we  take  Joly's  graphic  presentation  of 
criminaUty  by  the  native  country  of  the  criminal,  thus  elim- 
inating the  factor  of  immigration,  we  find  that  Bofiches-du- 
Rhone  goes  down  from  the  maximum  degree,  86,  to  62 ;  Herault 
from  81  to  63,  Alpes  Maritimes  from  83  to  45 ;  without  speaking 
of  the  department  of  the  Seine,  where  out  of  40,000  persons 
arrested  only  13,000  were  born  in  the  department,  for  if  Paris 
imports  a  great  many  rogues,  she  exports  a  great  many  also. 
Herault  itself  would  have  a  good  record,  but  one  city  (Cette) 
spoils  everything.  Of  10  persons  indicted  it  furnishes  nearly 
7;  it  supplies  by  itself  half  of  the  cases  tried  at  the  court  in 
Montpellier,  a  fact  due  especially  to  the  great  number  of  recidi- 
vists, who  throng  here  and  sleep  in  the  open,  and  to  the  for- 
eigners. In  1889  there  were  21  foreigners  indicted  to  118  resi- 
dents; that  is  to  say,  while  the  proportion  of  natives  was  2  to 
the  1000,  that  of  foreigners  was  19  to  1000.  The  same  thing  is 
true  in  Marseilles  of  the  laborers  working  at  the  port.  "It  is 
these  foreigners,"  writes  Joly,  "who  furnish  the  strongest  con- 
tingent to  the  thefts,  assassinations,  anarchistic  riots,  assaults, 
etc." 


§31]  DENSITY  OF  POPULATION  65 

In  1881  there  were  17  rapes  to  1,000,000  French 
"      "         "         "     60     "       "  "         foreigners 

In  1872  "  "  18  "  "  "  French 
"      "         "         "     46      "       "  "         foreigners 

It  was  known  already  that  the  immigrants  showed  a  high 
degree  of  criminality. 

From  the  recent  statistics  of  the  United  States  ^  it  is  seen 
that  the  States  which  receive  the  greatest  number  of  immigrants, 
especially  Irish  and  Italians,  give  the  highest  number  of  crimes. 
Thus: 

California 0.30  criminals  to  1000  population,  33%  immigrants 

Nevada 0.31         "         "      "  "  41% 

Wyoming 0.35         "         "      "  "  28% 

Montana 0.19         "         "      "  "  29% 

Arizona 0.16         "         "      "  "  39% 

New  York 0.27         "         "      "  "  23% 

On  the  other  hand. 

New  Mexico 0.03         "         "     "  "  6.7%  immigrants 

Pennsylvania 0.11         "         "      "  "        13,0% 

This  runs  counter  to  the  notion  of  the  effect  of  density  of 
population  upon  crime.  Montana  with  0.3  inhabitants  to  the 
square  mile,  Wyoming  with  0.2,  Nevada  with  0.6,  and  Arizona 
with  0.4  have,  notwithstanding  their  low  density,  an  enormous 
contingent  of  crimes,  on  account  of  immigration;  while  New 
York,  with  151  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, vnth  95  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile,  where  the  density 
is  very  great,  have  a  much  lower  criminality.  The  District  of 
Columbia  also,  which  contains  2960  inhabitants  to  the  square 
mile,  shows  relatively  low  figures. 

Of  49,000  individuals  arrested  in  New  York  32,000  were 
immigrants.^ 

Of  38,000  prisoners  in  North  America,  20,000  were  children 
of  foreigners.^ 

In  France  it  has  already  been  observed  that  in  1886 

of  100,000  settled  residents  8  came  before  the  courts 

"        "       who  had  changed  residence  29     "         "        "        " 
"        "        foreigners  41      "  "        "        " 

»  "Compendium  of  the  Tenth  Census  (1880)  of  the  United  States." 
Pt.  II,  p.  1659. 

*  Brace,  "The  Dangerous  Classes." 

*  Bertrami-Scalia,  op.  dt. 


66  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§31 

At  present  in  France  immigration  has  trebled;  from  1851  to 
1886  it  increased  from  380,381  to  1,126,123. 

Joly  ^  has  rightly  remarked  that  when  the  tide  moving  men 
to  emigrate  is  weak  it  draws  the  stronger  and  more  intelligent, 
but  when  it  becomes  too  violent  it  sweeps  along  good  and  bad 
alike.  In  fact,  the  greater  part  of  the  criminaUty  of  the  immi- 
grants is  furnished  by  the  border  provinces,  where  emigration 
is  easy.  Thus  in  1886  there  were  4  convictions  to  100,000  Swiss, 
18  among  the  same  number  of  Spaniards,  23  Italians,  and  almost 
no  English  or  Russians.  In  Paris,  in  the  same  way,  in  pro- 
portion to  their  numbers,  the  Belgian  and  Swiss  colonies  fur- 
nished three  times  as  many  of  the  persons  arrested  as  did  the 
English  or  Americans.  The  Italian  colony,  which  is  hardly  four 
times  as  large  as  the  Austrian,  furnished  15  times  as  many 
arrests.2  On  the  other  hand,  the  less  stable  the  immigration  is 
the  more  crimes  it  furnishes.  The  Belgians,  who  become  nat- 
uralized Frenchmen,  commit  fewer  crimes  than  the  Spaniards, 
who  are  nearly  always  merely  temporary  residents. 

The  situation  is  similar  with  reference  to  migrations  within 
a  country,  especially  migrations  of  a  wandering  sort,  like  that 
of  pedlars.  For  example,  in  a  study  made  at  St.  Gaudens,  from 
which  many  of  the  French  pedlars  start  out  (about  7000  in  a 
population  of  36,000),  it  was  found  that  they  furnished  a  very 
high  proportion  of  crimes,  both  of  fraud  and  of  violence.  From 
41  in  1831-«9  these  had  increased  to  200  and  290  in  1881;  and 
the  abandoned  children,  adulteries,  and  divorces  were  also  very 
numerous. 

Sarthe  is  one  of  the  best  of  the  departments  of  France  in 
point  of  criminality;  but  if  we  take  account  of  crimes  committed 
by  natives  who  have  emigrated  it  rises  34  degrees  in  the  crim- 
inal scale.  For  analogous  reasons  the  department  of  Creuze 
rises  from  the  third  to  the  eighteenth  place,  owing  to  its  45,000 
immigrants  caused  by  the  instability  of  labor. 

Many  come  to  the  great  cities  honest  but  with  false  ideas  of 
the  new  situation  that  has  enticed  them,  and  are,  in  conse- 
quence, easUy  led  astray,  and  little  by  little  become  criminals. 
The  young  giri,  ha\'ing  yielded  to  seduction,  becomes  a  prosti- 
'  "France  CrimineUe,"  1890.  »  Joly,  op.  cU. 


§31]  DENSITY  OF  POPULATION  67 

tute;  the  workman,  lacking  work,  falls  into  idleness,  and,  sur- 
rounded by  companions  who  incite  him  to  evil  and  tempted  by 
the  allurement  of  a  thousand  pleasures  that  he  sees  others  en- 
joying, becomes  a  thief.  There  are  repentant  workmen  who 
hope  to  make  themselves  forget  and  to  redeem  themselves  by 
work,  but  they  soon  relapse,  either  through  again  running  into 
temptation  or  through  inability  to  cover  up  the  past.  Finally 
there  are  evil-doers  who  come  to  the  city  only  to  commit  crime. 
In  the  small  towns,  as  Joly  very  well  says,  it  is  necessary  to 
seek  opportunity  for  crime;  in  Paris  the  opportunity  comes  to 
you  and  draws  you.  High  livers  are  themselves  a  cause  of 
crime,  especially  crimes  against  public  decency.  In  Paris  such 
crimes  may  be  committed  with  such  clever  shifts  that  they  no 
longer  appear  to  be  criminal.^ 

"The  full-blooded  Parisian  mingled  in  the  excesses  of  the 
Commune  only  in  a  very  moderate  degree,"  writes  Maxime 
du  Camp.  "The  scum  of  the  provinces  fermented  in  Paris. 
The  ruined  men,  the  empty-headed,  the  envious,  rushed  to  the 
city,  puffed  up  with  a  sense  of  their  own  importance,  and,  be- 
cause they  had  become  excited  in  the  village  wineshops,  be- 
lieved themselves  capable  of  ruling  the  world.  Paris  must 
realize  their  dream  or  perish;  but  Paris  did  not  even  know 
their  names,  and  to  expiate  this  grave  offense  it  must  fall." 

The  emigrant  in  general  (as  I  have  already  pointed  out  in 
the  second  edition  of  my  "Homme  Criminel")  is  that  human 
product  of  society  which  has  the  greatest  tendency  toward  asso- 
ciated crime.  For  emigrants  are  the  most  necessitous  part  of 
society,  the  least  closely  watched,  have  no  feeling  of  shame, 
escape  justice  most  easily,  and  make  a  great  use  of  thieves' 
slang.  Thieves  are  almost  always  nomads.^  Emigrants  from 
Abruzzo  formed  the  greatest  contingent  of  the  Mancini  Band. 
(Jorioz).  The  small  immigration  of  the  Garfagnini  to  the  quar- 
ries of  Carrara  produces  crime  even  after  the  return  of  the  work- 
men, for  they  come  back  drunkards,  cynics,  and  members  of 
secret  societies.  In  centuries  past  these  same  migrations  were 
already  a  cause  of  crime.^    The  band  of  Fiordispini,  for  example, 

»  Joly,  op.  dt.  2  Op.  cit.  Vol.  I,  Pt.  3,  Chap.  X. 

»  De  Stefani,  "Dell'  Emigrazione  di  Garfagnana,"  1879,  Milan. 


68  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  31 

was  originally  composed  entirely  of  tinkers,  candle  sellers,  har- 
vesters, and  pedlars,  who  were  already  too  much  noted  for 
sporadic  crime.  Even  emigrants  who  are  migrating  because  of 
religious  fanaticism,  and  hence  ought  to  be  farthest  from  crime, 
nevertheless  contribute  notably  to  the  number  of  cases  of  asso- 
ciated crime.  The  word  "mariulo"  seems  to  be  derived  from 
the  custom  of  crying  in  chorus,  "Vive  Maria!"  prevalent  among 
the  pilgrims  to  Loretto  and  Assisi  —  a  custom  which  did  not 
prevent  them,  however,  from  committing  rapes  and  robberies, 
believing  these  expiated  by  their  pilgrimage.^  Pilgrimage  was 
for  them  a  convenient  means  of  committing  crime  and  a  still 
more  convenient  means  of  doing  penance  for  it.  It  was  like 
the  famous  lance  which  first  wounded,  but  immediately  after- 
ward healed  the  wounds.  I  have  found  a  proof  of  this  in  a 
decree  of  the  king  of  France,  dated  September,  1732  (recalling 
other  decrees  of  1671  and  1686),  in  which  pilgrimages  were  pro- 
hibited as  a  frequent  cause  of  grave  crimes.^ 

»  Lozzi,  "Deir  Ozio  in  Italia,"  Florence,  1870. 

»  It  seems  worth  while  to  give  the  text  of  it  here:  "His  Majesty, 
calling  to  mind  the  declarations  of  the  late  king,  his  great-grandfather, 
dated  August,  1671,  and  January,  1686,  which  prohibit  (under  penalty  of 
condemnation  to  the  galleys  for  me,  in  the  case  of  men,  and  in  the  case 
of  women  other  penalties  at  the  discretion  of  the  judges)  to  any  of  his 
subjects  to  go  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Santiago  in  Gaficia,  to  Our  Lady  of 
Loretto,  and  to  other  places  outside  the  realm,  without  express  pennis- 
sion  of  His  Majesty,  countersigned  by  one  of  his  secretaries  of  state  with 
the  consent  of  the  bishop  of  the  diocese; 

"His  Majesty  being  informed  that,  notwithstanding  these  orders, 
many  of  his  subjects  neglect  to  ask  permission  or  abuse  the  permission  in 
different  ways  when  obtained,  and  under  a  specious  pretext  of  devotion 
abandon  their  families,  their  parents,  their  masters,  their  professions, 
their  trades,  in  order  to  be  free  to  lead  a  wandering  life,  full  of  idleness 
and  licentiousness,  which  often  leads  them  into  crime; 

"That  others,  leaving  the  realm  in  the  hope  of  establishing  themselves 
more  advantageously,  find  in  the  end  neither  the  advantages  nor  the  help 
which  good  conduct  in  their  native  land  would  have  brought  them;  and 
that  the  greater  part  of  them  die  miserably  upon  the  road,  or  run  the 
risk  of  being  enlisted,  whether  they  will  or  not,  in  the  armies  of  neighbor- 
ing powers; 

"That  often  it  happens  that  soldiers  in  the  service  of  His  Majesty 
mingle  with  these  vagabonds  and  on  account  of  the  great  number  of  these 
have  aji  opportunity  to  desert; 

"His  Majesty,  judging  it  necessary  for  the  good  of  the  service  and  of 
the  public  to  put  an  end  to  these  disorders  by  suppressing  the  pretext  that 
gives  rise  to  them,  expressly  forbids  any  of  his  subjects,  to  whatever  age, 
sex,  or  condition  they  may  belong,  to  go  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Santiago  in 
Galicia,  to  Our  Lady  of  Loretto  and  Monteferrato,  and  other  places  out- 
side of  our  realm,  for  any  cause  or  pretext  whatsoever,  and  this  under 


32] 


DENSITY  OF  POPULATION 


69 


This  is  doubtless  the  reason  why  places  endowed  with  cele- 
brated shrines  have  generally  the  worst  reputations,  as  d'Azeglio 
remarks  in  his  "Recollections." 

The  influence  of  emigration  explains  clearly  why,  in  the  rela- 
tion of  homicides  to  densitj%  Italy  differs  from  France.  In  the 
latter  country  in  the  ten  years,  1880  to  1890,  there  was  a  yearly 
average  of  only  11,163  emigrants,  while  in  Italy  the  number  in 
1892  reached  246,751,  with  the  yearly  average  about  124,000.^ 

§  32.  Birth-rate  and  Immigration 

These  investigations  of  emigration  solve  in  great  part  another 
problem  which  seems  to  present  a  complete  contradiction  in 
Italy  and  France.  Granting  the  influence  of  density  of  popu- 
lation upon  certain  crimes,  it  would  appear  that  these  crimes 
ought  to  follow  the  variations  of  the  birth-rate,  and  that,  for 
example,  theft,  which  increases  with  the  greater  density,  ought 
also  to  increase  with  a  higher  birth-rate.  In  France,  however, 
we  see  rape  and  assassination  increase  with  the  maximum  den- 
sity, but  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  birth-rate.  Corre,  and  Joly 
after  him  (op.  cit.),  have  observed  in  France  the  maximum 
criminality  in  the  departments  having  the  lowest  birth-rate. 


Birth-rate 

Crimes 
against  persons 

Thefts 

Rapes 

19.00 
16.47 
14.05 

64 
66 
89 

83 

99 

186 

17 
26 
29 

The  fact  is  that  in  France  the  lower  birth-rate  stands  in  direct 
relation  with  the  immigration  of  foreigners.  This  is  the  more 
easily  explained,  as  Maurel  observes,^  since  where  there  is  a 
lower  birth-rate  there  is  also  a  smaller  number  of  men.     Now 

penalty  of  being  condemned  to  the  galleys  for  life  in  the  case  of  men, 
etc.,  etc. 

"Declaring  null  and  void  all  permits  previously  granted." 

1  "Statistica  dell'  Emigrazione  Italiana,"  Rome,  1894. 

2  "  Revue  Scientif .,"  Nov.  12,  1895. 


70  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  32 

according  to  Joly's  observations  with  regard  to  Cette  and  Mar- 
seilles, the  deficiency  of  the  population  resulting  from  the  falling 
off  of  the  birth-rate  is  made  up  by  foreign  immigrants,  Genoese 
and  Calabrians  especially,  who  bring  about  an  enormous  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  crimes.  Another  contradiction  is  fur- 
nished by  the  very  prolific  class  of  workmen,  in  contrast  with 
the  miserly,  and  consequently  sterile,  peasant  class.  Thus  in 
districts  where  there  are  great  numbers  of  workmen,  as  in 
Seine-Inferieure,Nord,  and  Pas-de-Calais,  one  sees,  in  compar- 
ison with  the  departments  of  Cher  and  Indre,  a  great  number  of 
crimes,  notwithstanding  the  higher  figure  for  births. 

But  on  the  whole  the  antagonism  between  birth-rate  and 
crime  predominates.  Thus  Paris,  a  part  of  Champagne  and 
Normandy,  and  aU  the  Mediterranean  departments  except 
Gard  show  a  sharp  decline  of  the  birth-rate,  and  a  no  less  sharp 
increase  of  the  number  of  crimes.  (Joly.)  In  Tarn-et-Garonne, 
a  very  poor  department  without  resources  or  means  of  communi- 
cation, there  is  to  be  noted  an  increase  in  the  population  and  a 
smaller  number  of  crimes;  while  rich  and  fertile  departments 
become  stripped  of  their  native  population,  and  have  more 
crimes  and  a  larger  foreign  contingent.  (Joly.)  Brittany,  on  the 
other  hand,  Cher,  Seine,  Drome,  Vienne,  and  Vendee  have  more 
legitimate  births,  fewer  crimes,  and  more  early  marriages.  All 
this  has  less  connection  with  the  birth-rate  than  with  the  immi- 
gration that  makes  up  the  deficit  in  the  native  population;  and 
also,  as  we  shall  see,  with  the  avarice  that  lies  at  the  root  of  the 
whole  matter. 

But  the  influence  of  immigration  is  demonstrated  to  us  by 
the  inversion  of  the  rule  regarding  birth-rate  and  crime  in  Italy, 
where  there  is  no  immigration,  but  on  the  other  hand  an  emi- 
gration amounting  on  the  average  to  193  to  the  100,000  in- 
habitants yearly.i  We  find  in  the  statistics  of  Coghlan  that 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  immigrants  to  New  South  Wales 
(1884-86)  was  accompanied  by  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
crimes,  but  on  the  other  hand  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
emigrants  leaving  (1883-88)  also  corresponded  with  the  increase 
in  the  number  of  crimes  (1884-88).  If  we  take  advantage  of 
»  Del  Vecchio,  "SuU'  Emigrazione,"  Rome,  1892. 


§32]  DENSITY  OF  POPULATION  71 

Bosco's  new  investigations  ^  to  study  the  influence  of  immigra- 
tion upon  homicides  in  the  United  States  in  1889,  we  find  these 
facts:  among  those  held  for  homicide,  95  to  the  million  were 
born  in  the  United  States,  while  138  to  the  milUon  were  for- 
eigners, distributed  as  follows: 

Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway 5.8  to  the  100,000 

England 10.4  * 

Ireland 17.5  ' 

Germany      9.7  ' 

Austria 12.2  " 

France 27.4  ' 

Italy 58.1  ' 

That  is  to  say,  there  were  twice  as  many  in  proportion  to  the 
population  (except  in  the  case  of  the  French  and  Italians)  as  in 
the  native  country.  This  confirms  the  observation  that  here, 
as  in  France,  immigration  produces  a  disadvantageous  selection, 
even  allowing  for  the  fact  that  the  age  of  the  immigrants  corre- 
sponds to  that  which  in  Europe  gives  the  largest  number  of 
homicides. 

In  Italy  it  is  nearly  always  the  case  that  the  maximum  num- 
ber of  births  occurs  in  the  districts  which  are  most  notorious 
for  their  criminality,  as  well  as  for  their  poverty.  Thus  from 
1876  to  1888  the  annual  average  was  40  births  to  the  1000 
inhabitants  in  southern  and  insular  Italy,  and  only  36  through- 
out the  rest  of  the  country.  In  the  same  way  in  Sicily,  out  of 
four  provinces  most  given  to  homicide,  Girgenti,  Trapani,  Cal- 
tanissetta,  and  Palermo,  three  have  the  maximum  birth-rate.^ 
However,  another  factor  comes  into  play  here,  the  lack  of  self- 
restraint  due  to  the  excessive  heat,  which  causes  all  Malthusian 
precautions  to  be  forgotten  in  the  act  of  procreation. 

However,  the  excess  of  births  in  southern  Italy  is  neutralized 
by  the  high  mortality  rate  and  by  emigration.  For  this  reason, 
notwithstanding  the  greater  birth-rate,  the  average  family  in 
1881  was  4.10  in  Sicily,  and  4.50  in  Basilicata,  as  against  5.17 
in  Venice,  and  4.92  in  Tuscany. 

Comparing  next  the  countries  of  Europe  having  the  maxi- 
mum birth-rate  (1876-90) : 

1  "L'Omicidio  negli  Stati  Uniti,"  1895. 

2  Bodio,  "Statistica  penale,"  1879-83. 


72 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§33 


England 34,0 

lUiy 37.3 


Germany 31.1 

Hungary 44.0 


and  those  having  the  minimum  birth-rate: 

France  ....    24.6  Ireland   .    .    .    24.9  Switzerland  .    .    .    29.4 

we  find  a  coincidence  with  homicides  only  in  the  case  of  Italy 
and  Hungary,  which  are  in  complete  contrast  with  England 
and  Germany,  these  having  a  high  birth-rate  and  few  homicides. 
Among  the  nations  with  a  minimum  birth-rate  Ireland  alone 
has  a  low  figure  for  homicide.  And  if  in  England  and  Germany 
a  greater  number  of  thefts  corresponds  to  the  greater  birth-rate, 
this  is  not  true  of  Hungary  and  Switzerland.  It  follows  then 
that  on  the  whole  there  is  here  no  parallelism. 


§  33-   City  and  Country 

The  influence  of  density  is  further  shown  by  the  effect  in 
France  of  residence  in  the  city  or  in  the  country.  It  is  espe- 
cially to  MM.  Fayet,  Cosquet,  and  Lacassagne  that  we  owe 
the  most  diligent  investigations  of  this  subject.  It  is  shown 
by  their  studies  that  from  1843  to  1856  the  persons  indicted  in 
the  country  were  more  numerous,  while  since  1863  those  in  the 
city  have  been  in  the  majority.^ 


Homicides  to 
100,000 

Births  to 
100,000 

Caltaniasetta      

46.2 
26.9 
70.7 
19.2 
42.5 
15.7 
40.2 

4400 

Catania       

3900 

Girgenti      

4600 

Meaaina       

3900 

Palermo      

3900 

Syracuse     

4000 

Trapani      

4300 

The  emigration  from  the  country  to  the  cities  is  such  that 
the  rural  emigrants  constitute  a  fifth  part  of  the  urban  popula- 

»  See  Lacassagne,  in  my  "Archivio  di  Psichiatria  ed  Antropologia 
Cnminale  III,  p.  311.  Fayet  had  already  noted  in  France  in  1830-46 
1  rural  indictment  to  405  inhabitants,  and  1  city  indictment  to  165.  ("Jour- 
nal des  Econ.,"  1847.) 


§33]  DENSITY  OF  POPULATION  73 

tion;  and  it  is  the  better  and  more  intelligent  who  emigrate, 
thus  lowering  the  level  of  the  country  and  in  return  bringing 
back  to  it  the  vices  and  customs  of  the  city. 

To  sum  up,  the  indictments  for  crimes  against  property  have 
diminished  in  the  country  about  two-thirds,  and  in  the  cities 
one-half.    Thus  there  were: 

In  1843  73%  in  the  country,  64%  in  the  city 
"  1878  27%  "    "         "         36%  "    "      " 

Indictments  for  crimes  against  the  person  were  more  numer- 
ous in  the  rural  population  from  1823  to  1878,  but  the  number 
decreased  after  1859  much  more  than  in  the  cities.  For  crimes 
against  the  person  in  France  the  following  statistics  are  given: 

In  the  country  In  the  city 

In  1850 1819  830 

"   1851 1894  836 

"  1870 1180  732 

"  1871 1239  603 

As  regards  homicide,  Socquet  demonstrates  that  at  an  earlier 
period,  1846-50,  the  persons  indicted  in  the  country  were  three 
times  as  numerous  as  those  in  the  cities,  in  the  proportion  of 
20  to  7.6;  while  at  a  more  recent  period,  1876-80,  they  were 
only  twice  as  numerous,  63  to  31.  From  this  it  appears  that 
criminality  in  the  country  diminished,  and  in  the  city  increased 
nearly  a  third.    Those  indicted  for  murder  were: 

Rural  Urban 

1846-50 72%  .  65% 

1876-80 26%  31% 

That  is  to  say,  there  was  a  diminution  in  the  latter  period  in 
both  city  and  country,  but  much  greater  in  the  country.  In 
indecent  assaults  upon  adults  the  rural  districts  exceed  the 
urban,  doubtless  because  of  the  lack  of  houses  of  prostitution. 
Thus  there  were  in  the  same  periods: 

Rural  Urban 

1846-50 74%  24% 

1876-80 67%  27% 

with  a  decrease  in  the  country  and  a  slight  increase  in  the  city. 
The  number  of  indictments  for  indecent  assaults  upon  children 


74  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  33 

decUned  in  the  country  from  59%  in  1846-50  to  53%  in  1876-80; 
while  in  the  cities  during  the  same  time  it  rose  from  39%  to 
45%  (Socquet),  favored  by  idleness,  the  abuse  of  alcoholic 
drinks,  and  especially  by  the  satiety  produced  by  over-refine- 
ment. That  in  abortions  the  city  leads  is  unmistakable.  There 
are  twice,  and  latterly  even  three  times,  as  many  as  in  the 
country,  while  in  infanticide  the  country  leads.  This  is  doubt- 
less due  to  the  greater  ease  of  securing  accomplices  for  an  abor- 
tion in  the  city,  and  the  slighter  fear  of  being  discovered. 
Indictments  for: 


Abortions  in  France.^ 

To  the  million  inhabitants 

1851-55 

1876-80 

Abortions  in  France: 

Country 

City 

Infanticide: 

Country 

City 

9.3 

18.6 

32 
21 

4.2 
14.5 

35 

22 

The  curve  for  crimes  against  property  shows  that  economic 
crises  are  more  deeply  felt  in  the  country  than  in  the  city.^ 
Revolutions  and  the  vintage  have  a  different  effect  upon  the 
number  of  indictments  in  the  city  and  in  the  country.  In  the 
country  indictments  increase  in  the  years  of  the  abundant 
vintages.  Revolutions,  on  the  other  hand,  make  themselves 
but  slightly  felt  in  the  country,  and  only  in  the  years  following 
political  crises,  while  in  the  city  they  are  felt  at  once  and  keenly 
(Lacassagne). 

The  urban  and  the  rural  districts  have  each  their  own  specific 
type  of  criminality.  The  crimes  in  the  country  are  more  bar- 
barous, having  their  origin  in  revenge,  avarice,  and  brutal 
sensuality.  In  the  city  the  criminality  is  characterized  by  lazi- 
ness, a  more  refined  sensuality,  and  by  forgery.     This  phenom- 

»  Socquet,  "Contribution  k  I'Etude  de  la  Criminality  en  France," 
1826-80. 

'  Lacassagne,  op.  cit. 


§33]  DENSITY  OF  POPULATION  75 

enon  of  the  increase  of  crimes  against  public  decency  in  the 
cities,  and  the  relative  decrease  of  crimes  of  blood,  is  greatly 
accentuated  when  we  study  the  very  large  urban  centers.  In 
France,  for  example,  the  department  of  the  Seine  has  already 
reached  a  figure  for  homicide  (19.9)  lower  than  that  of  the 
departments  which  surround  it;  Seine-et-Oise  giving  24.3, 
and  Oise  giving  25.8  (Ferri).  The  figures  for  infanticide  are 
relatively  even  lower,  while  for  rape  upon  children  the  figures 
are  enormous.  The  number  of  thefts  is  also  very  high  (244). 
In  Italy,  in  the  crimes  against  common  honesty,  the  chief  cities, 
Turin,  Venice,  Bologna,  and  Rome,  have  the  predominance 
over  the  neighboring  districts.  The  same  is  true  with  regard  to 
crimes  against  public  decency  (Turin,  Genoa,  Venice,  Bologna, 
Naples,  Rome,  and  Palermo).  In  homicides  Rome  alone  holds 
the  first  place  (for  causes  of  which  we  shall  speak  later),  followed 
by  Turin.  In  all  the  other  principal  cities  homicides  are  de- 
creasing. Vienna  has  10.6  homicides  to  the  million  inhabitants, 
while  Austria  as  a  whole  has  25;  but  Vienna  has  116  thefts  to 
113  for  the  country  at  large.  In  Berlin  the  crimes  against 
property,  theft,  fraud,  and  vagrancy  really  decreased  from 
1818  to  1878,  notwithstanding  the  great  change  of  population; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  crimes  against  persons  increased 
(except  during  the  war  of  1870).^  The  number  of  homicides, 
however,  is  smaller  than  in  the  provinces,  being  11.6  to  the 
million  inhabitants,  while  in  Breslau  it  is  18.2,  in  Magdeburg 
12,  and  in  Constance  16.  In  thefts,  on  the  other  hand,  Berlin 
goes  beyond  all  the  provinces  except  one.  In  England  the 
phenomenon  is  still  plainer.  There  are  at  present  to  the  100,000 
in  London  15  suspected  persons  at  liberty,  with  50  in  the  other 
English  cities,  and  60  in  the  country  districts.  Just  so  there 
are  in  London  3  to  4  suspected  houses  to  the  100,000  popula- 
tion, 3.9  in  the  country,  and  18  in  the  other  cities. 

^  Starke,  op.  cit. 


CHAPTER  VI 

SUBSISTENCE    (FAMINE,    PRICE   OF   BREAD) 

§  34.  Subsistence 

ONE  of  the  factors  which  compUcate  the  effects  of  climate 
and  density,  often  to  the  point  of  their  becoming  inex- 
tricable, is  that  of  the  diflficulty  or  ease  of  obtaining  subsistence. 
Following  Oettingen's  comparisons  of  the  number  of  crimes 
in  Prussia  with  the  price  of  the  necessary  foods,  we  see  that  the 
food  problem  plays  a  part  equal  to,  or  even  greater  than,  that 
of  civilization.  For  with  cheap  food  crimes  against  property 
(except  arson)  decrease,  while  those  against  persons,  especially 
rape,  increase. 


Year 

Rapes 

Cases  of 

Crimes  against 

Crimes  against 

Price  of  grain, 

Arson 

property 

persons 

potatoes,  etc. 

1854 

2.26 

0.43 

88.41 

8.90 

217.1 

1855 

2.57 

0.46 

88.93 

8.04 

252.3 

1856 

2.62 

0.43 

87.60 

9.32 

203.3 

1857 

4.14 

0.53 

81.52 

13.81 

156.3 

1858 

4.45 

0.60 

77.92 

17.03 

149.3 

1859 

4.68 

0.52 

78.19 

16.63 

150.6 

In  Prussia  in  186-2,  when  the  price  of  potatoes,  etc.,  was  very 
high,  crimes  against  property  were  in  the  proportion  of  44.38 
to  15.8  for  those  against  persons.  When  the  price  of  provisions 
fell,  the  former  went  down  to  41,  while  the  latter  rose  to  18. 
The  famine  of  1847  increased  the  crimes  against  persons  24%. ' 
We  have  still  plainer  proof  in  the  statistics  for  Prussia  from 
1854   to  1878,  as  given  by  Starcke.^ 

Years  in  which  the  price  of  wheat  per  50  kilograms  was  : 

\  ^*PP*«^-  "AUgemeine  Bevolkerungs  Statistik,"  1861. 
Verbrechen  und  Verbrecher,"  1884,  Berlin. 


§34] 


SUBSISTENCE 


77 


Inhabitants 

More  than 
12  marks 

Less  than 
10  marks 

Between  10 
and  12  marks 

Crimes  in  general 

Thefts      

1  to  172.9 

1,990 

50.8 

76,283 

77,600 

4,282 

68,328 

37,328 

109,937 

230,700 

190.6 

2,645 

48.2 

71,787 

56,300 

3,587 

46,960 

54,463 

118,225 

227,000 

179.8 
2,512 

Forest  thefts      

Forgeries 

49.5 
68,600 

Bankruptcies      

Crimes  against  public  order     . 
Arson       

56,200 

3,055 

71,666 

Assaults       

45,933 

Homicides       

Infanticides 

95,000 
227,000 

We  see  here  that,  while  the  price  of  wheat  partly  influences 
crimes  in  general,  it  has  a  direct  effect  only  upon  forest  thefts, 
of  which  the  maximum  corresponds  to  the  maximum  price  of 
provisions.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  clear  that  the  minimum 
price  of  wheat,  corresponding  to  a  maximum  of  well-being, 
coincides  with  a  breaking  out  of  assaults,  homicides,  and  cases 
of  arson.  This  may  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  when  the 
price  of  bread  is  low  the  abuse  of  alcohol  is  made  possible.  The 
medium  price  of  grain  corresponds  with  the  greatest  frequency 
of  forgeries,  bankruptcies,  and  crimes  against  pubUc  order. 
In  France,  in  Corre's  graphic  tables  (Fig.  1)  we  see  that 
from  1843  to  1883  the  line  for  the  frequency  of  misdemeanors 
(nearly  all  against  property),  as  well  as  that  for  suicides, 
rises  continually,  and  keeps  nearly  parallel  with  the  line  for 
the  price  of  bread  as  far  as  1865.  At  this  point,  however, 
while  the  line  for  misdemeanors  continues  to  rise,  that  for  the 
price  of  bread  goes  down,  proving  that  other  factors  enter  in 
here,  reducing  the  cost  of  subsistence  to  the  place  of  second 
importance.  The  line  for  crime  proper  shows  no  parallelism 
with  the  price  of  bread.  Rossi  comes  to  the  same  conclusions 
in  a  study  of  the  criminality  of  Rome,  Caghari,  etc.,  with  respect 
to  heat  and  the  price  of  grain  for  the  period  from  1875  to  1883.^ 

»  "  Archive  de  Psych,  et  Antrop.  Crim.,"  1884. 


78  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  34 

The  number  of  crimes  against  property  (excluding  aggravated 
theft  and  highway  robbery)  is  affected  at  the  same  time  by 

Fig.  1. 


"'o*s§88iS  SSiii^^'°-^- 


o o 


8  8  8   Q 

©CO 


o   8   ! 

O      O     1 


ggJS^^^fefet^^^Sl 


o 
a. 
B 


o  0*0  3. 
f°  o  3  2 


the  winter  temperature  and  the  price  of  food.     In  Rome,  in 
fact,  during  these   nine  years  the  highest  number  of    crimes 


§  34]  SUBSISTENCE  79 

(70,738)  was  reached  in  1830,  when  a  very  high  price  of  wheat 
and  a  rigorous  winter  coincided;  while  in  1877,  when  the  price 
of  wheat  was  high  but  the  winter  particularly  mild,  the  number 
of  crimes  reached  only  61,498.  In  1881,  when  the  price  of 
wheat  decreased  noticeably,  and  the  mean  winter  temperature 
increased,  there  was  also  a  notable  decrease  in  the  crimes  against 
property.  From  70,730  the  number  went  down  to  59,815,  a 
diminution  which  continued  through  the  years  1882  and  1883, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  price  of  grain  and  the  rigor  of  the 
cold  decreased  also.  The  action  of  the  temperature  upon  as- 
saults and  other  crimes  against  persons  from  1875  to  1883 
amounted  to  nothing,  while  for  each  increase  in  the  price  of 
food  there  was  a  corresponding  decrease  in  the  number  of  these 
crimes,  and  vice  versa. 

But  of  all  studies  of  the  influences  at  work  in  the  different 
kinds  of  crime  in  Italy,  the  most  conclusive  is  that  of  the  hours  of 
labor  necessary  to  obtain  the  equivalent  of  a  kilogram  of  wheat 
or  bread.  In  this  way  the  price  of  food  is  corrected  for  variations 
in  wages.  ^  We  see  here,  in  Figures  2  and  3:  1st,  that  all  crimes 
against  property  (except  where  contradictory  factors  come  too 
powerfully  into  play)  run  with  great  fidelity  parallel  to  the  curve 
of  the  hours  of  work  necessary  to  procure  the  equivalent  of  a 
kilogram  of  bread  or  grain.  Thefts  increased  from  137  to  153 
during  the  period  1875-77  with  the  increase  of  the  hours  of 
work,  and  decreased  from  184  to  111  in  the  period  1879-88 
with  the  decrease  in  the  number  of  hours.  Commercial  crimes, 
forgeries,  etc.,  were  not  affected.  2nd.  Crimes  against  moral- 
ity increase  as  the  necessary  hours  of  labor  diminish.  Thus 
from  1881  to  1888,  a  period  in  which  the  hours  of  work  fell 
from  122  to  92,  these  crimes  increased  from  3.11  to  5.25.  In 
England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  the  statistics  for  50  years, 
which  Fornasari  di  Verce  has  examined  for  me,  show  an  anal- 
ogous relation  between  crime  and  the  variations  in  the  price  of 
grain;  that  is  to  say,  crimes  against  property  without  violence 
increase  generally  with  the  price  of  grain,  as  in  1846-47;  while 
crimes  with  violence  are  almost  wholly  unaffected  by  food 

1  Fornasari  di  Verce,  "La  Criminalita  e  le  Viconde  Economiche  in 
Italia,"  Turin,  Bocca,  1895. 


80 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§34 


Fig. 

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§  34]  SUBSISTENCE  81 

prices.  In  1842-45  and  1862-63  they  fell  with  the  fall  of  the 
price  of  grain,  but  rose  in  1881-86  notwithstanding  the  cheap- 
ness of  bread.  Fraudulent  crimes  against  property,  forgery, 
counterfeiting,  etc.,  and  likewise  crimes  against  persons,  were 
not  influenced  by  prices.  For  New  South  Wales  similar  con- 
clusions may  be  drawn  from  the  investigations  of  Coghlan. 
(Fig.  4.) 

The  effect  of  the  price  of  provisions  upon  murder  is  uncertain 
or  negligible,  the  latter  being  also  true  of  assaults.  The  in- 
fluence upon  theft  is  very  great,  as  is  also  the  inverse  effect  upon 
crimes  against  good  morals,  which  increase  with  the  falling  off 
in  the  price  of  food.  Famine  lessens  sexual  vigor,  and  abundance 
excites  it;  and  while  the  need  of  food  drives  men  to  theft,  the 
abundance  of  it  leads  to  sexual  crimes.  The  same  observations 
hold  good  for  the  scarcity  of  work  and  reduction  of  wages.  It 
has  been  remarked  that  women  and  domestic  servants  are  more 
apt  than  others  to  be  drawn  into  crime  by  the  scarcity  of  food, 
doubtless  because  they  feel  it  more.  Especially  is  this  the  case 
with  domestic  servants,  who,  because  of  intermittent  periods 
of  good  living,  lose  the  power  of  resistance  to  privation.  But, 
admitting  the  action  of  scarcity  of  food  upon  the  increase  of 
thefts  and  of  abundance  upon  the  increase  of  homicides,  as- 
saults, and  debauchery,  it  is  easy  to  understand  its  slight  in- 
fluence upon  the  variation  of  criminality  in  general,  if  one  group 
of  crimes  increases  with  a  given  state  of  the  market,  and  another 
group  decreases  under  the  same  conditions,  and  vice  versa. 
Even  when  the  price  of  food  moves  in  a  constant  direction  it 
does  not  modify  essentially  the  proportion  of  certain  crimes. 
For  example,  in  Italy  the  effect  of  the  rise  in  price  of  food  upon 
aggravated  thefts  is  very  marked;  yet  the  greatest  difference 
is  between  184  and  lOo,  that  is  to  say,  a  variation  of  79  to  the 
100,000.  Likewise,  when  the  sexual  crimes  increase  on  account 
of  the  low  price  of  food,  the  greatest  difference  is  2.14  to  the 
100,000,  —  a  fact  easy  to  understand  when  one  thinks  of  the 
greater  influence  of  heredity,  climate,  and  race. 

At  times  there  arises  a  strange  contradiction  in  the  effect  of 
high  prices  on  homicide.  Ordinarily  when  bread  is  dear,  money 
is  lacking  to  buy  alcoholic  drinks,  and  homicide  and  highway 


82 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§34 


robberies  diminish.  But  it  happens  sometimes  that  in  order 
to  procure  drink  men  will  commit  these  crimes  in  greater  num- 
ber, as  in  New  South  Wales.  Morbihan  and  Vendee,  according 
to  Joly,  are  the  most  moral  departments,^  and  wages  there  have 
increased  little,  while  the  necessaries  of  life  have  doubled  in 

Fig.  3. 


ITALY 


Number  of  hours 

Cases  before 

of  work  necessary 
to  earn 

Theft 

Imposture 
and  em- 
bezzlement 

Onecwt. 
grain 

One  cwt. 
bread 

Aggravated 

Simple 

1875 

146 

137.48 

1876 

148 

134.06 

1877 

166 

153.61 

1878 

154 

184.77 

1879 

152 

172.10 

1880 

149 

207 

196.84 

160.04 

49.04 

1881 

122 

181 

146.46 

123.24 

43.84 

1882 

116 

176 

140.98 

124.26 

43.24 

1883 

104 

167 

131.07 

117.30 

41.85 

1884 

96 

149 

116.77 

106.89 

39.61 

1885 

93 

146 

115.25 

104.84 

40.19 

1886 

93 

145 

116.73 

110.83 

43.85 

1887 

93 

147 

105.91 

107.98 

40.56 

1888 

92 

147 

111.44 

115.80 

42.21 

1889 

95 

149 

122.19 

121.83 

45.37 

price;  but  there  is  less  abuse  of  alcoholic  drinks  there.  In 
Boaches-du-Rhone,  on  the  other  hand,  wages  have  increased 
30%  and  provisions  15%  ;  in  Herault  wages  have  increased 
60%  and  provisions  much  less;  yet  these  departments  are 
^counted  among  the  most  immoral,  just  because  of  the  greater 
abuse  of  alcohol  there. 

One  thing  is  certain,  however,  and  that  is  that  whUe  famines 
are  rare  and  steadily  decrease  in  number,  thefts  are  constant 
and  always  increasing.^    From  all  this  it  is  easy  to  understand 
»  "  France  CrimineUe,"  p.  353.  «  Joly,  op.  at.,  p.  358. 


34] 


SUBSISTENCE 


83 


why  the  part  which  lack  of  food  and  real  poverty  play  in  crime 
is  smaller  than  is  generally  believed.  In  the  statistics  of  Guerry 
the  thefts  of  provisions  form  hardly  1%  of  the  total  number  of 
thefts,  and  even  with  those  hunger  has  less  to  do  than  gluttony. 
Of  43  classes  of  objects  stolen  in  London,  sausages,  fowls,  and 

Fig.  3. 


ITALY 

THE  Courts  (to  100,000  Inhabitants) 

Homicide 

Assault 

Sexual 

Resistance 
to  the 

Aggra- 
vated 

Simple 

government 

4.00 

10.71 

0.24 

1875 

4.50 

10.45 

0.14 

1876 

3.49 

9.30 

0.25 

1877 

3.91 

10.86 

0.67 

1878 

6.54 

13.79 

3.45 

0.45 

1879 

5.87 

12.48 

147.38 

3.11 

0.37 

1880 

5.35 

11.08 

151.48 

3.95 

0.34 

1881 

5.54 

10.17 

157.10 

3.76 

0.37 

1882       . 

4.98 

10.08 

165.10 

3.66 

0.66 

1883 

5.02 

9.C8 

167.18 

4.12 

0.61 

1884 

4.72 

9.27 

145.41 

4.29 

0.45 

1885 

4.52 

9.13 

158.83 

4.56 

0.42 

1886 

4.11 

8.38 

180.61 

4.41 

0.49 

1887 

4.26 

9.11 

192.27 

5.25 

0.26 

1888 

4.19 

8.17 

178.78 

5.62 

0.26 

1889 

game  stood  13th;  sugar,  meat,  and  wine,  30th;  and  bread  the 
last  of  all.  Joly  remarks  that  in  the  French  statistics  from 
1860  to  1890,  while  thefts  of  money  and  bank-notes  were  most 
numerous  (396  :  100,000),  thefts  of  meal,  oats,  domestic  ani- 
mals, etc.,  were  only  55  to  the  100,000.     Mare  writes:^ 

"It  is  seldom  that  hunger  leads  to  theft.  Young  men  steal 
knives  and  cigars,  and  when  provisions  are  stolen,  the  grown 
men  take  liquors,  the  women  bonbons  and  chocolate." 


'■  Un  Joli  Monde." 


84 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  34 


The  same  may  be  said  of  prostitution. 

"If  hunger  and  destitution,"  says  Locatelli,  "are  sufficient  to 
drive  a  young  girl  to  prostitution,  it  would  be  necessary  to  con- 
Fig.  4 

N.  S.  Wales 


fer  Montyon  prizes  upon  the  myriads  of  virtuous  daughters  of 
the  people  who,  notwithstanding  the  greatest  privations  and 
seductions  of  every  kind,  never  sell  themselves,  but  remain 
pure  and  chaste." 


§  35]  SUBSISTENCE  85 

It  is  not  impossible  that  with  time  we  may  arrive  at  such  a 
point  as  to  be  able  to  show  how  certain  kinds  of  food  favor 
certain  crimes.  We  know  that  a  vegetarian  diet  renders  those 
who  make  use  of  it  mild  and  tractable,  while  animal  food  makes 
men  cruel  and  .violent.  This  is  doubtless  why  the  Lombard 
peasant  patiently  bears  the  evil  treatment  of  his  masters,  while 
the  Romagnol,  addicted  to  a  pork  diet,  revenges  himself  with 
violence. 

§  35.  Insurrections 

The  influence  of  hunger  in  insurrections  also  has  been  much 
exaggerated,  as  I  have  shown  in  my  "  Crime  Politique."  In 
Faraglia's  valuable  book,  "Storia  dei  Prezzi  in  Napoli,"  which 
gives  us  the  price  of  food  year  by  year  for  nearly  nine  centuries, 
we  find  46  great  famines,  in  the  years  1182,  1192,  1257,  1269, 
1342,1496-97, 1505, 1508, 1534,  1551,  1558, 1562-63,  1565,  1570, 
1580,  1586-87,  1591-92,  1595,  1597,  1603,  1621-22,  1623-25, 
1646,  1672,  1694-97,  1759-60,  1763,  1790-91,  1802,  1810,  1815- 
16, 1820-21.  Now,  these  46  years  of  famine  coincide  with  in- 
surrections only  six  times,  namely,  in  1508,  1580,  1587,  1595, 
1621-22,  1820-21.  In  the  celebrated  insurrection  of  Masaniello 
(1647)  many  other  causes  were  associated  with  the  economic 
situation,  such  as  the  madness  of  Masaniello,^  the  hot  season, 
and  the  cruelty  of  the  Spaniards.  For  if  in  1646  there  was  a 
famine,  in  1647  there  was  abundance,  if  not  of  grain,  at  least  of 
fruits,  meat,  lard,  and  cheese.  Moreover,  there  was  no  insurrec- 
tion during  the  terrible  famine  of  1182,  which  lasted  five  years, 
and  in  which  men  could  scarcely  find  weeds  for  food.  Neither 
was  there  any  revolt  during  the  famine  of  1496-97,  when  so 
terrible  an  epidemic  resulted  that  people  of  the  cities  had  to 
flee  to  the  country;  nor  during  that  of  1565,  when  the  distress 
was  so  great  that  rotten  cabbage  leaves  sold  for  the  price  that 
would  normally  have  purchased  fresh  and  good  ones.  Nor 
was  there  an  insurrection  in  1570,  when  "the  poor  left  the 
provinces,  and  streamed  toward  Naples  in  crowds,  famished, 
emaciated,  sick,  hoping  to  save  their  lives  by  flight,  and  filling 
the  streets  with  their  misery."     Finally,  there  was  no  insur- 

^  C.  Lombroso,  "Tre  Tribuni  Studiati  da  un  Alienista,"  1887. 


86  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  35 

rection  during  the  famine  of  1586.  It  is  well  to  recall  here  that 
if  there  were  revolts  in  France  in  1827,  1832,  1847,  running 
parallel  with  economic  crises  and  dearths,  there  was  also  a  very- 
high  summer  temperature;  and  that  during  those  of  1834,  1864, 
and  1865  we  find  nothing  clearly  indicating  either  an  economic 
or  a  meteorological  cause.  In  Strasburg  between  the  periods 
1451-1500  and  1601-25  the  average  price  of  beef  rose  134% 
and  that  of  pork  92%,  while  many  years  the  wages  of  the  work- 
men sank  10%,  and  yet  there  was  no  insurrection.^  In  1670, 
during  the  extreme  famine  in  Madrid,  the  workmen  organized 
themselves  into  bands  and  plundered  the  houses  of  the  rich, 
killing  the  proprietors,  and  not  a  day  passed  that  some  one  was 
not  killed  for  the  sake  of  bread;  and  yet  there  was  no  real  in- 
surrection.2  In  India  it  has  been  possible  to  follow  the  conse- 
quences of  terrible  famines  step  bystep.  That  of  1865-66  caused 
the  loss  of  25%  of  the  population  of  Orissa,  and  of  35%  of  the 
population  of  Puri,  and  yet  there  was  no  insurrection  there  in 
those  years.  The  most  noted  famines  of  the  last  hundred  years, 
at  least  in  Nelhore,  one  of  the  provinces  which  has  suffered  most 
through  lack  of  rain  and  density  of  population,  took  place  in 
the  following  years:  1769-70,  1780,  1784,  1790-92,  1802,  1806- 
07,  1812,  1824,  1829,  1830,  1833,  1836-38,  1866,  1876-78.^ 
In  the  famine  of  1769-70  a  third  of  the  population  died.  In 
1877-78  it  is  estimated  that,  in  addition  to  the  normal  number 
of  deaths,  more  than  5  milhons  out  of  a  population  of  197  mil- 
lions died  by  famine.^  Yet  these  famines  gave  rise  to  no  insur- 
rection. The  great  Indian  mutiny  of  1857-58  was  due  ^  in  great 
part  to  aversion  to  the  innovations  (railroads,  telegraphs,  etc.) 
introduced  by  civilization,  to  the  conspiracies  of  the  dethroned 
princes,  and,  according  to  Hunter,  to  the  belief  among  the 
Sepoys  that  their  cartridges  were  to  be  greased  with  pork  fat.® 
Here,  then,  prolonged  hunger  was  less  powerful  than  super- 
stition.    The  other  Indian  rebellions  which  are  known  to  us 

»  Martini,  "Preussiche  Jahrbiicher,"  Nov.,  1895. 

«  Buckle,  IV. 

»  Hunter,  "Imp.  Gaz.  of  India,"  1881. 

*  Hunter,  "The  Indian  Empire,"  1882. 

*  Hunter,  op.  cit. 

*  Kaye,  "History  of  the  Sepoys,"  1865. 


§  35]  SUBSISTENCE  87 

had  no  relation  to  the  scarcity  of  provisions;  neither  the  insur- 
rection of  Bohilla  in  1751,  nor  that  of  the  Sikhs  in  the  Punjab 
in  1710,  nor  that  of  the  Sepoys  in  1764;  neither  the  little  semi- 
dynastic  insurrections  among  the  Synts  in  1843,  nor  of  the 
Sikhs  in  1848.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  province  of  Orissa, 
which  is  that  most  tried  by  famines,  has  the  smallest  number 
of  insurrections. 

All  this  is  to  be  explained  by  the  fact,  already  shown  by  our 
studies  of  the  effect  of  tropical  and  polar  climates,  that  when 
men's  vitality  is  lowered  they  have  not  enough  energy  to  resist. 
Thus,  the  excess  of  human  misfortunes  is  rather  less  likely  to 
produce  revolutions  than  great  prosperity.  This  is  entirely 
in  accord  with  what  has  been  observed  in  criminal  statistics, 
namely,  that  famine  and  great  cold  diminish  in  general  all 
crimes  against  persons,  especially  rapes  and  homicides.^ 

1  Lombroso,  "Crime  Politique  et  Criminality,"  Paris,  1895;  Id. 
"Pensiero  e  Meteore,"  Milan,  1875. 


CHAPTER  Vn 

ALCOHOLISM 

§  36.   Alcoholism  and  Food  Supply 

AS  we  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter,  the  effect  of  food 
l\.  supply  cannot  be  separated  from  that  of  alcohol.  Indeed, 
this  latter  is  so  powerful  a  factor  in  criminal  aetiology  that  it 
absorbs  the  other  almost  completely. 

§  37.  Pernicious  Effect  of  Alcohol 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  alcohol,  so  far  from  rendering 
extreme  temperatures  more  tolerable,  increases  the  danger 
from  great  heat  and  cold  alike,  so  that  in  the  polar  regions  and 
in  India  soldiers  and  sailors,  thinking  to  acquire  greater  resist- 
ance to  fatigue  by  the  use  of  alcoholic  beverages,  simply  ag- 
gravate their  condition.  It  is  doubtless  for  this  reason  that  in 
the  Russian  campaign  the  northerners  suffered  more  than  the 
more  temperate  Latins.  It  has  been  proved  in  cholera  epi- 
demics that  drunkards,  and  even  simple  "drinkers,"  are  afflicted 
in  greater  numbers  than  abstemious  persons.^  Abortions  are 
also  more  frequent  among  women  who  drink,  and  for  this  reason 
families  of  drinkers  show  a  fecunditj'^  from  2  to  4  times  less  than 
that  of  temperate  and  sober  couples.  This  fatal  liquor  can, 
then,  stimulate  carnal  passion  to  the  point  of  violence  and 
crime  without  thereby  increasing  the  birth-rate.^  Alcohol  is  one 
of  the  principal  causes  of  the  rejection  of  recruits  in  the  Swedish 

1  Among  abstainers  cholera  gave  a  mortality  of  19.9%,  aa  against 
91%  among  drinkers. 

*  Marriages  of  drinkers  gave  an  average  of  1.3  children,  those  of  ab- 
stamers,  4.1.     (Baer,  "Alkoholismus,"  Berlin,  1878.) 


§  38]  ALCOHOLISM  89 

army  for  weakness  or  lack  of  development.  These  rejections 
rose  to  32%  in  1867,  and  fell  to  28%  in  1868  after  the  promul- 
gation of  the  liquor  laws.  In  the  French  departments  where, 
on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  wine,  there  is  more  use  of  spirits, 
as  in  Finistere,  the  exemption  of  conscripts  from  72  rises  to 
155  (Lunier).  Alcohol  influences  the  stature.  The  tall  Woljaks, 
after  having  used  brandy  to  excess,  diminished  in  stature  until 
they  fell  below  middle  height ;  and  we  have  seen  that  the  beauti- 
ful women  of  the  valley  of  Viu  lose  their  beauty  and  stature  after 
having  taken  to  the  use  of  brandy.  There  is  no  cause  for  sur- 
prise, then,  at  the  diminution  of  the  average  duration  of  life 
caused  by  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks.  Brandy  should  be  called 
not  eau  de  vie,  but  eau  de  la  mort.  Neisson's  calculations  show 
that  the  mortality  among  drinkers  is  at  least  3.25  times  greater 
than  that  of  abstainers.^ 

§  38.  Pauperism 

All  this  prepares  us  to  understand  that  one  of  the  most  evident 
and  serious  effects  of  alcoholism  is  pauperism,  The  progeny 
of  the  alcoholic  are  blind,  paralytic,  impotent.  Even  if  they 
begin  life  with  wealth,  they  must  necessarily  become  poor.  If 
they  are  poor,  they  are  incapable  of  working. 

It  is  true  that  with  the  increase  in  wages  the  number  of  drunk- 
ards grows  disproportionately,  and  in  consequence  the  number 
of  misdemeanors  also.  When  the  wages  of  the  miners  in  Lan- 
cashire increased  from  4  shillings  to  7  and  9,  the  mortality  caused 
by  drunkenness  rose  from  495  to  1304  and  2605,  and  crimes 
from  1335  to  3878  and  4402.  But  it  is  still  worse  when  wages 
go  down.  Then  alcohol  is  drunk  to  supply  the  place  of  clothing 
and  food,  that  cold  and  hunger  may  be  more  easily  borne;  and 
alcohol  in  its  turn  makes  the  drinker  constantly  weaker  and 
poorer,  and  keeps  him  always  closely  imprisoned  in  its  fatal 
domain.    It  may  be  said,  then,  that  alcoholism  is  the  product 

1  A  man  of  20  addicted  to  drink  has  an  expectancy  of  life  of  16  years, 
an  abstainer  of  the  same  age  has  an  expectancy  of  44  years.  A  beer 
drinker  would  have  21.7  years,  a  drinker  of  spirits,  16.7;  a  drinker  of  both 
beer  and  spirits,  16.1.  Of  97  children  of  alcoholic  parents  only  14  were 
normal.     (Baer,  op.  cit.) 


90  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§39 

both  of  superfluity  and  of  poverty.  This  was  seen  in  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  where  between  1850  and  1860  wages  increased  a 
fourth,  and  alcoholism  increased  also;  but  it  increased  still 
-more  when,  after  the  crisis  in  America,  80  factories  closed  and 
wages  were  cut  down  a  third.  The  number  of  poor  families 
rose  from  1865  to  2255,  and  the  wine-shops  from  183  to  305; 
the  prostitutes  increased  from  37  to  101,  while  the  marriages 
decreased  from  785  to  630.  At  the  same  time  cases  of  theft  and 
arson  were  multiplied.^  In  the  famine  of  1860-61  it  was  noted 
in  London  that  not  one  of  the  7900  members  of  the  temperance 
society  had  applied  for  aid.^  Huisch  has  observed  that  of  each 
£100  received  in  alms  £30  are  spent  for  drink;  and  Bertrand 
and  Lee  have  remarked  that  the  most  miserable  municipalities 
are  those  where  the  use  of  alcohol  has  increased  inordinately 
and  the  wine-shops  have  multiplied.  A  striking  proof  of  the 
deleterious  effects  of  alcohol  is  given  by  Upper  Silesia.  The 
misery  was  there  so  great  that  persons  were  dying  of  hunger, 
and  at  the  same  time  alcoholism  raged  so  frightfully  that  bridal 
couples  reeled  before  the  altar,  and  parents  came  intoxicated  to 
the  baptism  of  their  new-bom  children.  A  preacher  of  Silesia 
wrote:  "Where  intemperance  reigns,  misery  and  crime  follow 
the  body  like  its  shadow." '  It  has  already  been  noted  that 
drunkenness  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  separation  and  divorce 
in  Germany;  and  furthermore  it  is  known  that  the  children  of 
divorced  parents  and  second  marriages  furnish  a  strong  con- 
tingent to  crime  and  prostitution. 

§  39.  Alcoholism  and  Crime  Statistics 

From  all  this  it  is  easy  to  see  the  connection  between  alcohol- 
ism and  crime  from  a  social  as  well  as  a  pathological  point  of 
view.  The  first  proof  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  statistics 
which  show  a  continual  increase  of  crimes  in  civilized  countries. 

»  Thun,  "Die  Industrie  am  Niederrhein,"  1890. 
t    '  ^J^  J^?Li?  ^^^^  *^^  almshouses  of  Philadelphia  received  yeariy 
irom  4UU0  to  5000  paupers  who  had  been  ruined  by  drink.     Of  3000  indi- 
gent persons  m  Massachusetts  about  2900  found  themselves  in  the  same 
condition.     (Baer,  op.  cU.,  p.  582.) 

*  Baer,  op.  ciU 


§  39]  ALCOHOLISM  91 

This  increase  can  be  justified  by  the  growth  of  the  population 
only  to  the  extent  of  from  13%  to  15%,  but  it  is  all  too 
easily  explained  by  the  abuse  of  alcoholic  drinks,  the  con- 
sumption of  which  increases  at  just  the  rate  at  which  crime 
increases. 

A  further  clear  proof  is  to  be  found  in  Ferri's  study  of  crim- 
inality in  France,^  which  brings  into  relief  the  parallelism  of 
crime  vnth  the  consumption  of  wine  and  spirits,  at  least  in  the 
years  of  exceptionally  good  vintages  (1850,  '58,  '65,  '69,  '75), 
and  of  exceptionally  poor  ones  (1851,  '53,  '54,  '66,  '67,  '73). 
1870,  the  year  of  the  war,  is  an  exception,  as  in  that  year  mili- 
tary statistics  crowd  out  judicial  ones;  1876  forms  another  ex- 
ception and  one  which  I  cannot  explain,  not  having  the  statistics 
of  the  successive  years  before  me;  while  in  1860-61  the  vintage 
seems  to  have  postponed  its  effect  upon  crime  by  one  year. 
The  parallelism  is  the  stranger  and  more  noteworthy  because 
several  authors  pretend  to  attribute  a  fatal  influence  to  spirits 
only  and  not  to  wine,  so  that,  as  we  shall  see,  it  is  proposed  to 
encourage  the  distribution  of  wine  in  the  countries  most  inclined 
to  crime.  Now,  from  these  statistics  the  relation  of  the  con- 
sumption of  alcohol  to  homicides  and  assaults  is  not  so  evident 
as  that  of  wine,  except  in  the  years  1855  to  1868,  and  1873  to 
1876.  And  this  is  easy  to  understand,  for  brawls  are  more 
easily  started  in  the  wine-shops  than  in  the  establishments  of 
the  brandy  sellers,  where  the  stay  is  too  short  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  be  given  for  quarrels. 

Another  proof  of  the  relationshi^of  drink  and  crime  is  to  be 
found  in  the  observed  fact  th^^^^ldays  and  months  when 
crimes  are  most  frequent  are  ji^^^H^e  when  alcoholic  drinks 
are  most  abused.  So  Schroeter  ^^^ts  -  that  in  Germany  out 
of  2178  crimes  58%  took  place  Saturday  night,  3%  Sunday, 
and  1%  Monday;  and  that  upon  these  same  days  sexual  crimes, 
rebellion,  and  arson  took  the  lead  with  a  ratio  of  82%.  In  Italy 
in  1870,  the  only^^-  in  which  a  record  of  this  kind  was  kept, 
the  same  fact  wai^^Bed.^ 


1  Lombroso,  "HdHRe  flp^WgyS95. 

'  "Jahrbuch  der^est^j^^^^Hpefangnisse,"  1871. 

•  In  the  official  statis^^^^^^^Rie  following  percentages  of  the  various 


92 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§39 


Ferri  discovered  the  surprising  fact  that  in  France,  in  the 
period  from  1827  to  1869,  while  the  crimes  against  persons  in 
general  fell  off  rapidly  from  August  to  December,  the  serious 
bodily  assaults,  on  the  contrary,  showed  a  marked  increase  in 
November,  when  the  new  wine  comes  in.  It  is  to  be  noted  that 
it  is  a  question  of  the  infliction  of  grave  injuries,  such  as  come 
before  the  assizes,  and  not  of  the  mere  wine-shop  brawls,  such 
as  are  tried  before  the  minor  courts.  Dixon  has  found  a  single 
place  in  America  that  has  been  exempt  from  crime  for  some 
years  notwithstanding  its  large  population  of  working  men. 
This  is  St.  Johnsbury,  Vermont.  But  here  there  is  absolute 
prohibition  of  the  sale  of  fermented  beverages,  beer,  wine,  etc., 
which  are  furnished,  like  poisons,  by  the  druggists  upon  the 
written  demand  of  the  consumer,  with  the  consent  of  the  mayor, 
who  writes  the  name  of  the  person  concerned  in  a  public  register. 
In  Belgium,  it  has  been  estimated  alcoholism  causes  25%  to 
27%  of  the  crime.  In  New  York,  of  49,423  persons  ar- 
raigned, 30,509  were  habitual  drunkards.    In  1890,  in  the  whole 

crimes  were  committed  on  holidays  (there  being  one  holiday  on  the  aver- 
age to  five  working  days) : 


Resistance  to  the  officers     .  . 

Rape      , 

Parricide,  uxoricide,  infanticide 

Murder 

Homicide 

Assault  with  fatal  result 
Malicious  assault      .    . 
Threats  and  vagrancy 

Highway  robbery 

Theft      .    .    . 

Exposure  and  substitution  of  infants 
Receiving  and  buying  stolen  goods  , 
Misappropriation  of  pubUc  funds      . 

Forgery  

Calumny  and  false  accusation  .  .  . 
Highway  robbery  with  homicide  .  . 
Bankruptcy  . 


Accordingly  all  the  crimes  of  vii 
lead  on  hohdays,  as  compared  with 


!  crimes  of  viSH^^^^against 
ompared  with  fr^^^^^^dprei 


Assizes 

Ordinary 
tribimals 

68.1 

78.5 

65.4 

67.4 

56.9 

72.8 

74.8 

78 

76 

71.3 

69.6 

72.4 

61.5 

61.2 

66.8 

34.8 

63.9 

39.3 

47.8 

49.4 

k^ 

48.2 

liagalnst  ve 

rsons  take  the 

^WuLpreme 

ditated  crimes. 

§  40]  ALCOHOLISM  93 

United  States,  out  of  every  100  prisoners,  20  were  drunkards, 
60  were  moderate  drinkers,  and  20  were  abstainers.^  In  Hol- 
land, four-fifths  of  the  crimes  are  attributed  to  the  abuse  of 
alcohol,  seven-eighths  of  the  brawls,  three-fourths  of  the  at- 
tacks upon  persons,  and  one-fourth  of  the  attacks  upon  prop- 
erty. Three-fourths  of  the  crimes  in  Sweden  are  attributed 
to  alcoholism.  This  applies  especially  to  assassination  and 
other  crimes  of  blood,  but  thefts  and  frauds  are  largely  due 
to  an  alcoholic  heredity.  In  England,  10,000  out  of  29,752 
convicted  by  the  assizes,  and  50,000  out  of  90,903  convicted  by 
the  magistrates,  had  been  drawn  into  crime  by  frequenting 
public  houses.^  In  France  Guillemin  estimates  the  criminals 
resulting  from  the  abuse  of  alcohol  at  50%,  and  Baer  places 
those  in  Germany  at  41%.  The  greatest  proportion  of  drunk- 
ards is  to  be  found  in  those  departments  where,  on  account  of 
the  small  production  of  wine,  a  larger  quantity  of  spirituous 
liquor  is  consumed.  Of  the  criminals  observed  by  Marro,  73% 
abused  alcoholic  drinks,  and  of  these  only  10%  were  normal. 
In  my  "Centuria  di  Criminali,"  Rossi  found  that  drunkenness 
ran  up  as  high  as  81%,  of  which  23%  was  begun  in  infancy. 
There  was  a  difference  of  only  10%  in  the  frequency  of  alcohol- 
ism among  youths  and  among  adults.  Of  100  criminals  below 
20  years,  64%  were  already  addicted  to  drink;  from  which  we 
may  see  that  this  vice  is  very  precocious. 

§  40.  Physiological  Effects 

All  substances  which  have  the  power  of  exciting  the  brain 
in  an  abnormal  manner  drive  one  more  easily  to  crime  and  sui- 
cide, as  well  as  to  insanity,  with  which  last  the  other  two  are 
often  inextricably  confused.  This  tendency  has  been  observed 
among  the  Medjidubs  and  the  Aissaonas,  who,  not  having  any 
narcotics,  bring  on  intoxication  by  a  prolonged  oscillatory 
movement  of  the  head.  "They  are  dangerous  people,"  says 
Berbrugger,^  "fierce,  and  inclined  to  theft."     Opium-smokers, 

1  Bosco  "L'Omicidio  negli  Stati  Uniti  d'America,"  1897. 
*  Baer,  op.  cit.,  p.  343.    " 
Jg^rie,"  1860. 


»  "L^i 


f 


94  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§40 

also,  are  often  seized  with  homicidal  fury;  and  under  the  action 
of  hashish  Moreau  felt  himself  impelled  to  steal. 

The  effects  of  wine  are  still  more  pernicious,  and  worse  still, 
spirits,  which  may  be  called  wine  with  its  harmful  principle 
concentrated.  But  most  harmful  of  all  are  such  liquors  as 
absinthe  and  vermouth,  which,  in  addition  to  alcohol,  contain 
drugs  that  poison  the  nervous  centers.^  Neumann  in  1876 
showed  how  alcohol  alters  the  hemoglobin,  diminishes  by  one- 
fourth  the  capacity  of  the  blood  corpuscles  to  take  up  oxygen, 
and  produces  congestion  in  the  membrane  and  cortex  of  the 
brain.  From  this  there  results  dilatation  of  the  blood  vessels, 
paralysis  of  the  muscular  fibers  of  the  walls  of  the  vessels, 
oedema,  and  finally  fatty  degeneration  of  the  irritated  nerve 
cells.  Krapelin  ^  showed  that  from  30  to  45  grams  of  absolute 
ethyl  alcohol  more  or  less  checked  and  paralyzed  all  the  mental 
functions.  The  stupor,  which  resembles  physical  fatigue  in  its 
effect,  increases  with  the  dose  of  alcohol  absorbed,  lasting  for 
small  quantities  40  or  50  minutes,  and  for  larger  quantities  1  or 
2  hours.  In  the  smaller  doses  the  paralysis  of  the  mental 
functions  is  preceded  by  a  period  of  activity  or  acceleration 
which  laists  20  to  30  minutes  at  most. 

But  this  observer  has  further  demonstrated  that  the  effect 
of  alcohol  is  not  the  same  for  all  psychological  functions;  that 
while  one  may  have  a  transitory  acceleration  of  motor  innerva- 
tion, the  intellectual  functions,  such  as  apperception,  concep- 
tion, association,  are  checked  and  almost  arrested  even  by  the 
smallest  doses  of  alcohol.  The  same  may  be  said  with  regard 
to  sensation.  It  follows  that  the  initial  period  of  excitation 
produced  by  small  quantities  of  alcohol,  is  only  a  kind  of  fire- 
works, due  to  several  factors  coming  together,  especially  to  the 
increase  of  external  associations  of  ideas,  associations  of  words, 
sensations,  etc.,  to  the  detriment  of  internal  associations,  those 
more  logical  and  profound.  Under  the  influence  of  alcohol  the 
over-excited  motor  centers  give  the  drunkard  an  illusory  power, 
impelling  him  to  the  most  brutal  acts.    The  association  of  ideas 

»  "Revue  Scientifique,"  1897. 

*  "Ueber  die  Beeinflussung  einfacher  physicher  Vorgange  durch  einige 
Arzneimittel "  (Jena,  Fischer,  1892). 


§  40]  ALCOHOLISM  95 

is  disturbed,  and  the  drinker  repeats  without  cessation  the  same 
barren  platitudes,  the  same  coarse  jests.  This  Hkewise  is  to  be 
explained  by  the  initial  acceleration  of  the  psychomotor  ac- 
tivities, by  which  painful  mental  inhibitions  are  intercepted. 
Alcohol,  after  it  has  once  driven  its  unhappy  victim  into  this 
evil  path,  holds  him  fast  there,  since,  after  a  drunkard  is  once 
made,  the  noblest  sentiments  become  paralyzed  and  the  soundest 
brain  diseased.  This  is  a  new  experimental  proof  of  the  truth 
of  the  statement  that  crime  is  the  effect  of  a  morbid  condition  of 
the  organism.  Thus,  with  alcoholics,  the  schlerosis  which  affects 
the  brain,  spinal  cord,  and  ganglia,  as  well  as  the  liver  and  kid- 
neys, shows  its  effects  in  one  set  of  cases,  in  dementia,  uremia, 
or  jaundice,  according  to  the  part  affected,  and  in  others  by 
crime. 

But  unhappily  crime  is  the  commonest  and  most  frequent 
consequence,  a  truth  of  which  there  is  superabundant  evidence. 
I  met  recently  in  prison  a  very  remarkable  thief,  who,  as  they 
all  do,  boasted  of  being  a  thief,  and  did  not  know  how  to  talk 
in  anything  but  thieves'  slang;  and  yet  neither  his  education 
nor  the  shape  of  his  head  gave  any  indication  of  what  impelled 
him  to  crime.  I  soon  learned  the  cause,  however,  when  he 
told  me  that  both  his  father  and  he  were  drunkards.  "You 
see,"  he  said,  "  since  I  was  a  boy  I  have  had  a  passion  for  brandy, 
and  now  I  drink  from  forty  to  eighty  small  glasses  of  it,  and 
the  brandy  drunkenness  passes  away  after  I  have  drunk  two 
or  three  bottles  of  wine,"  ^  Habitual  drinkers  are  not  only 
immoral  and  beget  children  who  are  defective,  delinquent,  or 
precocious  debauchees,^  as  we  shall  show  by  the  history  of  the 
Juke  family,  but  intoxication  itself  is  a  direct  cause  of  crime. 
Gall  tells  of  a  brigand  named  Petri,  who  felt  himself  impelled  to 
homicide  when  he  drank;  and  he  mentions  a  woman  in  Berlin 
who,  when  intoxicated,  was  seized  with  sanguinary  desires. 

Alcohol,  then,  is  a  cause  of  crime,  first,  because  many  commit 
crimes  in  order  to  obtain  drink;  further,  because  men  sometimes 
seek  in  drink  the  courage  necessary  to  commit  crime,  or  an 
excuse  for  their  misdeeds;  again,  because  it  is  by  the  aid  of 

1  "Archivio  di  Psichiatria  e  Scienze  Penali,"  1890. 

2  Ann.  Med.  Psich.,  1877. 


96  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  41 

drink  that  young  men  are  drawn  into  crime;  and  because  the 
drink-shop  is  the  place  for  the  meeting  of  accomplices,  where 
they  not  only  plan  their  crimes  but  also  squander  their  gains. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  in  London  in  1880  there  were  4938 
public-houses  which  were  the  resorts  of  criminals  and  prostitutes 
exclusively. 

Finally,  alcohol  has  a  direct  relation  to  crime,  or  rather  to  the 
prison,  since  after  his  first  imprisonment  the  liberated  criminal, 
having  lost  his  reputation  and  all  connection  with  his  family, 
seeks  compensation  and  oblivion  in  drink.  This  is  why  we 
often  find  alcoholism  among  recidivists,  and  it  also  explains  the 
fact  observed  by  Mayhew,  that  in  the  afternoon  nearly  all  the 
thieves  of  London  are  intoxicated,  and  generally  die  of  drink 
between  the  ages  of  thirty  and  forty.  The  same  thing  is  found 
among  the  transported  convicts  of  Noumea,  who  drink  not  only 
from  settled  habit,  but  also  to  forget  dishonor,  separation  from 
family  and  country,  and  the  cruelties  of  the  wardens  and  their 
companions;  and  perhaps  also  to  drown  remorse.  Wine  becomes 
among  them  a  regular  medium  of  exchange.  A  shirt  is  worth 
one  liter,  a  coat  or  pair  of  trousers,  two.  There  is  nothing,  even 
to  the  kiss  of  a  woman,  that  may  not  be  bought  with  wine.^ 

§  41.   Specific  Criminality 

It  will  be  useful  here  to  observe  what  crimes  are  especially 
influenced  by  alcoholism.  From  Baer's  statistics  2  of  the  pen- 
itentiaries and  jails  of  Germany,  shown  on  the  opposite  page, 
it  appears  that  alcoholism  occurred  oftenest  in  the  case  of  those 
charged  with  assaults,  sexual  offenses,  and  insurrections.  Next 
came  assassination  and  homicide;  and  in  the  last  rank  those 
imprisoned  for  arson  and  theft,  that  is  to  say,  crimes  against 
property.  These,  however,  are  more  numerous  than  the  others 
with  habitual  drunkards.  The  minimum  occurs  in  the  case  of 
forgery  and  swindling,  and  with  reason,  for,  as  several  swindlers 
have  said  to  me,  "it  takes  a  clear  head  to  carry  out  a  shrewd 
scheme."    According  to  Marambat,^  of  3000  convicted  persons 

1  »^°°*^^^®';.  "Souvenirs  d'un  D^port^,"  p.  376,  Paris,  1880. 
.  „;^er  Alkohohsmus,  seine  Verbreitung,  etc.,"  Beriin,  1878. 
»  "Revue  Scientifique,"  1888. 


41] 


ALCOHOLISM 


97 


investigated  by  him,  78%  were  drunkards;  vagrants  and  mendi- 
cants lead  with  a  figure  of  79%;  murderers  and  incendiaries 
showed  50%  and  57%  respectively;  and  thieves,  swindlers,  etc., 
71%.  In  general,  88%  of  the  crimes  against  persons  were  com- 
mitted by  alcoholics,  and  77%  of  the  crimes  against  property. 
Marro,  also,  found  that  among  drunkards  highway  robbers  held 
the  first  place,  82%  being  addicted  to  drink;  of  brawlers,  77% 


I.   In  Penitentiakies 


Total 

Alcoholic  Criminals 

In  general 

Occasional 

Habitual 

Assaults      

Robbery  and  murder   . 
Simple  homicide    .    .    . 
Sexual  crimes     .... 

Theft 

Attempted  homicide 

Arson 

Premeditated  homicide 
Perjury 

773 
898 
348 
954 
10,033 
252 
304 
514 
590 

575  (75.5%) 
618  (68.8%) 
202  (63.2%) 
575  (60.2%) 
5212  (51.9%) 
128  (50.8%) 
383  (47.6%) 
237  (46.1%) 
157  (26.6%) 

418  (72.7%) 
353  (57.1%) 
129  (58.6%) 
352  (61.2%) 
2513  (48.2%) 

78  (60.9%) 
184  (48.0%) 
139  (58.6%) 

82  (52.2%) 

157  (27.3%) 

265  (42.9%) 

291  (41.4%) 

223  (38.8%) 

2699  (51.8%) 

50  (39.1%) 

199  (52.0%) 

98  (41.4%) 

75  (47.8%) 

II.  In  the  Common  Jails 


Sexual  offenses  .    .    . 
Resistance  to  officers 

Assaults      

Arson 

Theft 

Fraud,  forgery,  etc.  . 


209 

652 

1130 

23 

3282 
786 


158  (77.3%) 
499  (76.5%) 
716  (63.4%) 
11  (48.0%) 
1016  (32.0%) 
194  (24.7%) 


113  (73.3%) 
445  (89.0%) 
581  (81.1%) 

666  (63.5%) 
111  (57.2%) 


41  (26.7%) 

54  (11.0%) 

135  (18.9%) 

382  (36.5%) 
83  (42.8%) 


were  the  same;  of  thieves,  78%;  then  swindlers  with  66%,  mur- 
derers with  62%,  and  ravishers  with  61%.  Vetault  found  that 
of  40  alcoholic  criminals,  15  were  homicides,  8  thieves,  5  swind- 
lers, 6  sexual  criminals,  4  brawlers,  2  vagrants.  We  may  say, 
in  general,  that  the  serious  offenses,  especially  the  infliction  of 
bodily  injuries  and  crimes  against  property  (simple  theft  and 
robbery),  are  those  in  which  the  influence  of  alcoholism  makes 
itself  more  decidedly  felt,  but  that  its  action  is  less  evident  in 
the  latter  class  of  cases  than  in  the  former. 


98  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  41 

In  studying  the  influence  of  alcohol  upon  the  criminality  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  there  are  to  be  found,  according  to 
Fomasari  di  Verce,  some  strange  differences.  (1)  With  the 
increase  of  the  consumption  of  alcohol  crimes  against  property 
without  violence  frequently  decrease,  though  irregularly;  i  and 
with  the  falling  off  of  the  use  of  alcohol  crimes  increase.  There 
are,  however,  some  exceptions.  Thus,  in  1875-76  they  increased 
with  the  increased  consumption,  but  in  1877-78  increased  also, 
notwithstanding  a  diminution  in  the  use  of  alcohol.  (2)  Upon 
violent  crimes  against  property  the  consumption  of  alcohol  has 
no  certain  influence.  (3)  Fraudulent  crimes  against  property 
mostly  decrease  with  the  greater  consumption  of  alcohol.  From 
1870  to  1875,  and  from  1863  to  1865,  as  the  consumption  rose, 
these  crimes  descended  from  276  to  260,  and  from  519  to  238. 
From  1848  to  1855,  however,  the  two  increased  together.  Con- 
sequently, independent  of  the  consumption  of  alcohol,  there  is 
now  an  increase,  now  a  diminution,  of  these  crimes.  Thus  while 
the  use  of  alcohol  went  on  diminishing  from  1875  to  1884, 
fraudulent  theft  sometimes  increased,  sometimes  decreased. 
(4)  Forgery  and  counterfeiting  also  decreased  up  to  1884  with 
the  lowering  of  the  price  of  wine,  but  after  that  increased  not- 
withstanding the  lower  price.  (5)  Crimes  against  persons  seem 
to  follow  the  fluctuations  of  the  consumption  of  alcoholic  bev- 
erages, increasing  gradually  with  the  rise  in  the  price  of  alcohol, 
as  in  the  period  1848  to  1857.  They  do  not,  however,  decrease 
with  the  lowering  of  the  price  in  the  period  1873  to  1889.^ 
(6)  The  other  crimes  have  no  very  clear  relation  with  the  con- 
sumption of  alcohol;  but  misdemeanors  and  violations  of  police 
regulations  decrease  with  the  diminution  in  consumption,^ 

Finally,  it  may  be  remarked  that  although  a  very  important 
factor,  in  England,  where  it  makes  itself  felt  with  most  intensity, 

*  That  the  increase  or  diminution  of  the  consumption  of  alcohol  exer- 
cises no  great  influence  upon  the  crimes  against  property  without  violence 
may  be  seen,  for  example,  from  the  fact  that  these  crimes  increased  from 
20,035  to  23,571  in  1847,  and  from  21,545  to  23,017  in  1854,  paraUeling 
an  increase  m  the  consumption  of  alcohol.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
i^^  in  1864  and  1871  from  14,075  to  13,202,  and  from  12,294  to 
}}a^  '  110*^ withstanding  the  noticeable  increase  in  consumption,  from 
0.85  to  0.90,  and  from  1.23  to  1.27. 

*  Fomasari  di  Verce,  op.  dt.,  p.  198. 

»  Fomasari  di  Verce,  op.  dt.,  chaps.  62-68. 


§42] 


ALCOHOLISM 


99 


alcoholism  enters  as  a  cause  into  no  more  than  77%  of  the  cases. 
In  New  South  Wales  there  is  no  correspondence  to  be  found  be- 
tween alcohol  and  crime,  except  in  the  case  of  theft  and  arson.  ^ 

§  42.  Antagonism  between  Alcoholism  and  Crime  in  Civilized  Countries 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  in  civilized  countries,  where 
alcohol  is  most  abused,  as  in  New  South  Wales  and  England, 
its  influence  becomes  weaker  and  weaker,  and  Bosco  shows  that 
in  the  United  States,  only  20%  of  the  homicides  are  addicted 
to  drunkenness,  while  70%  on  the  contrary  are  sober  {op.  cit.). 
This  fact  has  already  been  explained  by  Colajanni  and  Zer- 
boglio.^  It  is  not,  according  to  them,  that  alcohol  has  any  less 
terrible  effect  upon  individuals,  but  that  the  abuse  of  it  occurs 
where  civilization  is  already  very  far  advanced  and  protects  the 
individual  from  great  crimes  by  increased  inhibitory  power  and 
a  greater  psychic  activity.  This  is  why  England,  Belgium, 
Norway,  and  Germany,  which  are  the  countries  where  the 
maximum  quantity  of  alcohol  is  consumed  but  civilization  is 
most  advanced,  furnish  a  smaller  contingent  of  homicides  than 
Spain  and  Italy,  where  less  is  consumed.^ 

Here  is  a  recent  table  of  alcoholism  in  Europe :  ^ 


Austria    .... 

Spain 

Germany  .  .  . 
Italy  ..... 
United  Kingdom 
Belgium  .... 
France     .... 


Consumption  of 

pure  alcohol 

per  capita 

(in  gallons) 


2.80 
2.85 
3.08 
3.40 
3.57 
4.00 
5.10 


Homicides 
to  100.000 
inhabitants 


25.0 
74.0 

5.7 
96.0 

5.6 
18.0 
18.0 


This  explains,  as  Colajanni  very  truly  remarks,^  why  in  France 
the  serious  crimes  caused  by  alcoholism,  which  were  from  7%  to 

1  Coghlan,  op.  cit.  2  "L'Alcoolisme,"  Turin,"1893. 

'  Coghlan,  "The  Wealth  and  Progress,  etc.,"  Sydney,  1893. 
*  ".\rch.  diPsich.,"VIL 


100  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§43 

11%  in  the  period  from  1826  to  1840,  descended  to  5%  and  3% 
in  the  period  from  1861  to  1880.  Alcoholism  continues  and  even 
increases,  but  at  the  same  time  the  inhibitory  power  given  by- 
civilization  also  increases.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  crimes  di- 
minish notwithstanding  the  influence  of  alcohol.  We  must  add 
that  in  the  north  the  effect  of  the  cold  plays  a  large  part;  and 
although,  on  the  one  hand,  it  induces  men  to  drink,  on  the  other 
hand  it  lessens  their  impulsiveness  and  hence  their  tendency  to 
homicide. 

§  43.  Political  Disturbances 

Alcohol  is  a  powerful  factor  in  insurrections.  This  fact  has 
not  escaped  the  attention  of  leaders  of  rebellions,  who  have 
often  taken  advantage  of  it  to  attain  their  ends.  Thus  in  Argen- 
tina Don  Juan  Manuel,  himself  an  alcoholic,  found  a  powerful 
aid  to  his  political  schemes  in  the  explosions  of  popular  rage 
produced  by  drink.  For  the  same  reason  alcohol  was  a  political 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  Quiroga,  Franco,  Artigas,  and  their  wild 
followers,  of  whom  several,  like  Blacito  and  Ortoguex,  became 
themselves  the  victims  of  delirium  tremens  (Ramos-Mejia).^ 

The  abuse  of  spirituous  liquors  in  Buenos  Ayres  in  1834  is 
unbelievable.  In  that  year  there  was  consumed,  besides  hun- 
dreds of  hogsheads  of  brandy,  3836  frasqueras,  263  hogsheads, 
and  2182  demijohns  of  gin,  2246  hogsheads  of  wine,  346  barrels 
of  beer,  as  well  as  cognac  and  port.  During  the  French  Revo- 
lution it  was  alcohol  that  inflamed  the  bloody  instincts  of  the 
crowd  and  the  representatives  of  the  revolutionary  govern- 
ment. Among  the  latter  we  may  recall  Monastier,  who,  being 
intoxicated,  had  Lassalle  guillotined,  and  the  next  day  did  not 
remember  the  order  he  had  given.  The  envoys  from  Vendee 
in  three  months  emptied  1974  bottles  of  wine  (Taine),  and  in- 
cluded in  their  number  Vacheron,  who  violated  and  then  shot 
down  women  who  resisted  his  alcohol-inflamed  desires.  It  has 
been  asserted  that  during  the  coup  d'etat  of  the  second  of  Decem- 
ber, enormous  quantities  of  wine  were  distributed  to  the  troops. 
Certainly  alcoholism  was  no  stranger  to  the  disturbances  of 
1846,  among  the  chiefs  of  which,  according  to  Chenu,^  there 

I  Lombroso  and  Laschi,  "Le  Crime  Politique  et  les  Revolutions." 
Les  Conspu-ateurs,"  1849;  Lombroso,  "Le  Crime  Pol.,  etc." 


§  44, 45]  ALCOHOLISM  101 

were  two  drunkards,  Caussidiere  and  Grandmesnil.  It  is  also 
certain  that  alcoholism  played  a  great  part  in  the  Commune, 
thanks  to  the  great  quantity  of  wine  and  spirits  to  be  found  in 
the  besieged  city.  Despine  ^  notes  in  this  connection  that  dip- 
somania recruited  the  greatest  number  of  the  soldiers  of  the 
Commune,  who  were  drawn  by  the  hope  of  gratifying  their  un- 
fortunate appetite  by  pay  and  pillage,  and  whom  alcoholism 
made  indifferent  to  danger  and  wounds.  The  Communist 
general,  Cluseret,  himself  in  his  Memoires  does  not  attempt  to 
conceal  the  fact. 

"Never,"  he  says,  "have  the  wine-sellers  made  so  much 
money  as  at  that  period."  [He  himself  often  had  to  have  heads 
of  battalions  arrested  for  intoxication,  not  only  between  night 
and  morning,  but  also  between  morning  and  night.]  "When 
things  began  to  look  black  for  the  besieged  insurgents,  when 
the  Versailles  troops  were  threatening  Fort  dTssy  at  close 
range,  what  did  the  defenders  do?  The  taverns  and  wine-shops 
of  the  village  were  crowded  with  customers  stupefied  by  drink. 
At  Asnieres,  on  the  very  eve  of  the  capitulation,  the  National 
Guard,  following  its  laudable  custom,  smoked,  slept,  ate,  and 
drank." 

§  44.   Alcoholism  and  Evolution 

In  the  "Man  of  Genius"  I  have  shown  that  a  number  of  men 
of  genius,  and  certain  of  their  parents,  were  alcoholics  (Beetho- 
ven, Byron,  Avicenna,  Alexander,  Murger);  but  one  may  say 
that  this  is  rather  an  effect  and  complication  of  genius  than  a 
cause,  for  these  great  and  powerful  brains  need  ever  some  new 
stimulant.  Parallel  to  this  is  the  fact  that  the  more  civilized 
peoples  more  easily  fall  a  prey  to  alcoholism,  as  a  necessary  con- 
sequence of  their  greater  cortical  excitability. 

§  45.  Tobacco 

According  to  Venturi,^  criminals  show  a  greater  number  of 
users  of  snuff,  not  only  than  normal  persons,  but  also  than  the 
insane  (criminals,  45.8%;  insane,  25.88%;  normal  persons, 
14.32%);  and  among  the  criminals  themselves  those  guilty  of 

1  "  De  la  Folie,"  etc.,  Paris,  1875. 

2  Venturi,  "Archivio  di  Psich.,"  VII,  630. 


102  CRBIE:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  45 

crimes  of  blood  show  a  higher  percentage  (48%)  than  do  thieves 
and  forgers  (43%).  Criminals  and  lunatics  form  this  habit  very 
early,  which  is  not  the  case  with  the  normal  man;  but  while  the 
habit  grows  upon  the  insane  in  the  asylums,  with  criminals  it  is 
not  similarly  increased  by  detention  in  prison.^  The  prostitutes 
of  Verona  and  Capua  nearly  all  take  snuff,  and  those  who  do 
not,  smoke.  Mararabat  ^  asserts  that  the  passion  of  a  minor  for 
tobacco  leads  to  idleness,  drunkenness,  and  finally  crime.  Of 
603  dehnquent  children  from  8  to  15  years  of  age,  51%  had  the 
habit  of  using  tobacco  before  their  detention;  of  103  young  men 
between  16  and  20  the  proportion  of  tobacco  users  was  84%;  of 
850  mature  men  78%  had  contracted  this  habit  before  the  age  of 
20.  Of  these,  516,  or  57%,  had  been  imprisoned  for  the  first 
time  before  the  age  of  20,  while  of  those  who  had  never  made 
use  of  tobacco  the  proportion  of  those  imprisoned  so  young  was 
only  17%.  Of  vagrants,  beggars,  thieves,  swindlers,  etc.,  89% 
are  tobacco  users.  Among  convicts  who  are  drunkards  74%  use 
tobacco,  among  the  others  only  43%.  The  number  of  recidi- 
vists among  those  who  smoke  is  79%,  and  only  55%  among 
those  who  do  not.  Temperate  prisoners  show  18%  of  recidivists 
among  those  who  do  not  smoke,  and  82%  among  those  who  do. 
It  is  clearly  to  be  seen,  then,  that  there  is  a  causal  connection 
between  tobacco  and  crime,  like  that  which  exists  in  the  case  of 
alcohol.  But,  as  in  the  case  of  alcohol,  it  is  a  curious  fact  that 
the  countries  where  the  consumption  of  tobacco  is  greatest 
have  a  lower  criminality.^  This  contradiction  is  frequently  met 
in  our  researches;  but  it  soon  disappears,  because  the  abuse  of 
these  stimulating  substances,  as  in  the  case  of  alcohol,  takes 
place  especially  among  civilized  people,  who  learn  to  control 
themselves. 

»  Venturi,  op.  cit.  »  "Archiv.  di  Psich.,"  V,  378. 

'  Consumption  of  tobacco  in  pounds  per  capita: 

HoUand    .   .    .  6.92        Germany  ....  3.00        Spain 1.70 

Austria     .    .    .  3.77        France 2.05        Italy 1.34 

penmark     .    .  3.70        Switzerland  .    .    .1.87        Russia 1.23 

Belgium   .    .    .3.15 

(Coghlan,  "Wealth  of  New  South  Wales,"  1895.) 


§  46, 47]  ALCOHOLISM  103 

§  46.  Hashish 

Stanley  found  in  Africa  a  kind  of  brigands,  called  Riiga-Ruga, 
who  were  the  only  natives  who  used  hashish  to  excess.  Accord- 
ing to  a  tradition  of  Uganda,  crime  appeared  among  the  sons  of 
Kinto  after  they  had  taken  up  beer-drinking. 

§  47.  Morphine 

To  the  foregoing  intoxicants  many  more  may  be  added.  The 
Malay  running  amuck  is  impelled  to  his  homicidal  mania  by 
the  intoxication  of  opium.  The  Chinese  opium-eater  is  at  once 
apathetic,  impulsive,  and  inclined  to  suicide  and  murder.  Many 
female  swindlers  have  both  the  morphine  habit  and  a  tendency 
to  hysteria;  and  those  addicted  to  the  use  of  morphine  generally 
have  the  moral  sense  largely  obliterated,  and  are  in  consequence 
the  more  inclined  toward  swindling,  and  sometimes  toward 
homicide  and  sexual  offenses.^  The  slave  to  morphine  loses 
little  by  little  the  power  of  resisting  impulsive  tendencies,  to 
such  an  extent  that  he  equals  or  surpasses  the  smoker  of  hashish, 
with  whom  criminal  tendencies  are  common.  A  Chinaman,  in 
order  to  get  money  for  opium-smoking,  staked  even  his  own 
fingers,  which  he  cut  off,  joint  by  joint,  as  he  lost.  Dr.  Lamson^ 
a  morphine  user,  poisoned  his  brother-in-law  with  morphine, 
without  comprehending  the  gravity  of  the  act.  When  slaves  to 
morphine  are  undergoing  a  forced  abstinence  they  show  rage, 
melancholy,  and  a  tendency  to  suicide  and  homicide,  but  espe- 
cially toward  theft  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  the  desired  drug 
(Guimbail).  Marandon  de  Montijel  reports  the  case  of  an  advo- 
cate who,  being  refused  morphine  on  board  ship,  broke  into  the 
ship's  stores  to  procure  it,  A  woman  suffered  so  from  being 
deprived  of  morphine  that  she  ended  by  prostituting  herself  in 
order  to  obtain  it.  Another,  addicted  to  the  use  of  morphine, 
murdered  her  granddaughter,  and  maintained  that  the  drug 
drove  her  to  acts  of  violence.^  An  hysterical  woman,  28  years 
old,  committed  a  fraud  by  getting  goods  to  the  value  of  120 
francs  under  a  false  name,  but,  with  a  strange  improvidence, 

1  Charcot,  op.  cU. 

2  Guimbail,  "Annales  d 'Hygiene  Publique,"  1891. 


104  CREME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§48 

returned  to  the  store  a  few  days  after  and  returned  part  of  the 
goods,  saying  that  she  was  not  satisfied  with  them.  She  had 
sold  the  rest  to  buy  morphine,  for  she  owed  the  druggist  1600 
francs,  and  when  he  refused  her  further  credit  she  committed 
her  offense. 

§  48.  Spoiled  Maize 

Indian  com  that  has  become  spoiled  must  be  regarded  as  a 
cause  of  crime.  Experimental  observations  have  shown  that 
hens  and  good-natured  dogs,  fed  upon  spoiled  maize,  become 
fierce  after  a  time.  I  have  already  in  my  "Etudes  Cliniques 
sur  la  Pellagre"  (1872),  and  in  ray  "Traite  sur  la  Pellagre" 
(Turin,  1890),  told  stories  of  criminals,  where  the  original  factor 
was  pellagra,  that  is  to  say,  the  use  of  spoiled  Indian  corn.  Thus 
a  man  afflicted  with  pellagra  out  of  avarice  starved  his  children, 
and  killed  one  of  them  for  having  stolen  a  few  potatoes  out  of  his 
field  to  appease  his  hunger.  A  woman  threw  her  new-born  child 
into  a  well  almost  publicly.  Another  stole  to  satisfy  an  insatia- 
ble appetite,  and  said,  "I  should  be  capable  of  eating  a  man." 
All  three  had  acquired  moral  insanity  at  an  advanced  age 
through  being  poisoned  by  maize. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

INFLUENCE   OF   EDUCATION   UPON   CRIME 

§  49.  Illiteracy  and  Crime 

THE  absolute  parallelism  between  education  and  crime, 
which  many  maintained  several  years  ago,  is  to-day 
rightly  regarded  as  an  error.  Marro  found  that  of  500  crimi- 
nals and  500  honest  men  in  Turin  there  were: 

Criminal  Honest 

Illiterate •    •    •     1*%  6% 

Knowing  how  to  read  and  write   .    .     75%  67% 

Educated 12%  27% 

with,  it  is  true,  a  larger  proportion  of  criminals  among  the 
illiterates,  but  also  among  those  who  could  read  and  write.^ 

Morano  proved  in  1878  in  Palermo  that  of  53  crimes  com- 
mitted in  the  school,  34  came  from  the  pupils  and  19  from  the 
teachers,  who  certainly  did  not  lack  for  education.^  Curcio 
found  one  convict  in  Italy  to  284  of  the  illiterate  population, 
and  one  to  292  of  the  educated,  —  figures  which,  with  a  slight  in- 
crease of  literates  among  the  criminals,  would  balance  one 
another.  These  very  slight  differences  become  in  certain  cate- 
gories of  crime  still  less  marked.  Three-sevenths  of  the  con- 
victs had  received  elementary  instruction;  one-half  of  those 
guilty  of  sexual  offenses,  one-half  of  the  minor  offenders,  and 
ten  twenty-fifths  of  the  criminals  against  persons  and  property 
had  received  some  instruction  (Curcio,  op.  cit.).  And  while 
criminals  in  general  give  an  average  of  from  50%  to  75%  of 
illiterates,  criminals  who  are  still  minors  average  only  42%, 
and  in  some  provinces  still  lower.  In  Lombardy,  for  example, 
only  5%  of  the  juvenile  offenders  are  illiterate,  and  in  Piedmont 

1  "  Caratterie  dei  Criminali,"  1886,  Turin. 

2  Lombroso,  "L'Incremento  del  Delitto,"  p.  80. 


106 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§49 


17%.  As  early  as  1872  it  had  been  estimated  that  to  453 
illiterates  there  were  51  who  could  read,  368  who  could  read 
and  write,  401  who  could  read,  write,  and  count,  and  5  who 
had  received  a  higher  education.^  According  to  Joly,  the  de- 
partment of  Herault,  which  in  1866  gave  the  minimum  of 
iUiterates  (1%)  among  the  conscripts,  at  that  time  held  the 
lowest  place  in  the  scale  of  criminality;  whereas  now  that  it 
has  a  great  number  of  schools  it  has  mounted  to  the  highest; 
and  a  similar  statement  may  be  made  of  Doubs  and  Rhone 
(op.  cit.).  On  the  other  hand.  Deux  Sevres,  Vendee,  and  Lot 
with  12,  Vienne  with  14,  Indre  with  17,  C6tes-du-Xord  with 
24,  and  Morbihan  with  35  illiterates  furnish  the  minimum 
degree  of  criminality  (id.).  Levasseur  calculates  that  of  100 
persons  indicted  in  France  there  were: 


1830-34 


1840-50 


1850-60 


1860-70 


1875  I  1878 


Knowing  how  to  read 
Ha\Tng  higher  education 


38 

2 


41 


48 


55 
5 


60 
4 


95 
4 


Thus  in  less  than  30  years  criminals  with  more  or  less  education 
doubled  in  number.  Tocqueville  shows  that  in  Connecticut 
criminality  has  increased  with  the  increase  in  instruction.  In  the 
United  States  the  maximum  figures  for  criminality  (0.35,  0.30, 
and  0.37  to  the  1000)  were  noted  in  Wyoming,  California,  and 
Nevada,  which  gave  the  minimum  number  of  illiterates  (3.4, 
7.7,  and  8.0%) ;  and  the  minimum  figures  for  criminality  were 
found  in  New  Mexico  (0.03),  South  Carolina  (0.06),  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  Georgia,  and  Louisiana,  which  had  the  highest 
number  of  illiterates.  Nebraska,  Iowa,  Maine,  and  Dakota 
were  exceptional,  having  a  small  number  of  criminals  and  illit- 
erates both,  as  a  result  of  other  causes  which  we  shall  see  pres- 
ently. In  England  the  counties  of  Surrey,  Kent,  Gloucester,  and 
Middlesex,  where  there  is  a  higher  degree  of  education,  gave  the 
maximum  degree  of  criminality,  while  the  minimum  was  shown 


1  Cardon,  "Statist.  Carceraria,"  Rome,  1872. 


§49]      INFLUENCE  OF  EDUCATION  UPON  CREVIE        107 

by  the  more  iEiterate  districts,  North  Wales,  Essex,  and  Corn- 
wall.^ In  Russia,  where  education  is  much  less  common,  Oet- 
tingen  (3d  ed,,  p.  597)  calculates  that  2o%  of  the  convicts  know 
how  to  read  and  write,  and  even  29%  of  the  men,  while  of  the 
population  at  large  only  8%  can  read  and  write.  "Examine," 
says  Lauvergne,  "  the  records  of  the  courts,  and  you  will  see  that 
the  most  unreformable  criminals  are  all  educated"  ("Les  For- 
mats," p.  207).  But  Coghlan  gives  us  a  still  better  proof  in  his 
"Wealth  of  New  South  Wales"  (Sydney,  1895).  There  the 
percentage  of  illiteracy  among  the  general  population  in  1880  was 
12 ;  the  illiterate  prisoners  were  5.5%  of  the  illiterate  population, 


Persons 
arrested 

Illiterate 

Knowing  how  to 

Read 

Read  and  write 

Against  persons 

Against  property 

with  violence 

Against  property 

without  violence  .... 
Rioting,  drunkenness  .  .  . 
Counterfeiting 

3,355 

990 

4,873 

32,878 

157 

222 
60 

331 

2,348 
3 

39 
14 

69 

473 
4 

3,094 

916 

4,473 

30,057 

150 

and  the  more  or  less  educated  prisoners  6.2%  of  the  educated 
population.  In  1891  the  general  percentage  of  illiteracy  was 
7%,  the  illiterates  imprisoned  4.1%,  and  the  educated  persons 
imprisoned  4.7%.  That  is  to  say,  absolutely  as  well  as  rela- 
tively, that  persons  who  had  received  instruction  committed 

1  May  hew,  op.  cit. : 


Convicts  to 
10,000  inhab. 

Percentage  of 
illiterates 

Gloucester 

Middlesex 

26 

24 

7 

8 

35 
18 

North  Wales 

35 

Cornwall 

45 

108  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  50 

more  crimes  than  the  illiterate.  From  1881  to  1891  pupils  in 
the  schools  increased  from  197,412  to  252,940,  and  the  persons 
arrested  from  39,758  to  44,851.  For  each  10  new  schools  opened 
there  were  5  more  arrests;  and  this  was  true  in  all  the  diflPerent 
branches  of  crime. 


§  so.  Dififusion  of  Education  —  Its  Advantages 

However,  an  impartial  examination  of  the  figures  for  these 
last  years  brings  the  comforting  assurance  that  education  is  not 
so  fatal  as  it  appears  at  first  to  be.  It  favors  crime  only  up  to  a 
certain  point,  after  which  its  influence  is  the  other  way.  Where 
education  is  widely  diffused  the  list  of  educated  criminals  in- 
creases, but  the  list  of  illiterate  criminals  increases  still  more, 
which  shows  that  the  criminality  of  the  class  with  a  moderate 
amount  of  education  is  decreasing.  Thus  in  New  York,  while  the 
whole  population  showed  6.08%  of  illiteracy,  and  the  immigrants 
who  furnish  the  greatest  proportion  of  criminals  only  1.83%, 
the  criminal  class  showed  an  illiteracy  of  31%.^  Of  the  homi- 
cides recently  convicted  in  the  United  States,^  33%  were  com- 
pletely illiterate,  64%  could  read  and  write,  and  3%  had  a  higher 
education,  while  the  illiteracy  of  the  population  at  large  was  only 
10%.  In  Austria,  while  the  young  and  moral  population  of  Salz- 
burg and  the  Tyrol  have  no  illiterates,  the  criminal  population 
show  an  illiteracy  of  from  16%  to  20%  (Messedaglia).  In  the 
recent  statistics  of  Joly  (op.  cit.)  we  find  that  in  France,  to  the 
100,000  inhabitants: 

6  departments  had    7  to  10  illiterates  to  9  indictments 
13  "  "    10  "  20         "         "  9 

3  "  "    20  "  50         "         "  9 

11  "  "    50  "  61         "         "  9 

Here  crime  increased  with  a  moderate  education,  and  decreased 
with  a  higher  education.  In  France  also  the  following  percent- 
ages of  illiteracy  were  found:  ^ 

»  Brace,  "The  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York,"  1871. 
'  Bosco,  "L'Omicidio  negU  Stati  Uniti,"  1897. 
»  Oettmgen,  3d  ed.,  p.  597. 


§  50]      INFLUENCE  OF  EDUCATION  UPON  CRIME        109 


Among  soldiers 

Among  criminals 

1827-28  

56 

62 

1831-32  

49 

59 

1835-36 

47 
47 

57 

1836-50  

48 

1863-64   

28 

52 

1865-66   

25 

20 

36 

1871-72   

37 

1874-75   

18 

36 

1875-76  

17 

34 

1876-77   

16 

31 

The  illiterates  in  each  of  the  two  categories  diminish  each  year, 
then,  but  much  more  slowly  among  the  criminals;  and  we  may 
add  that  the  criminals  under  21  years  of  age  decreased  from 
1828  to  1863  by  4152  individuals.  The  facts  appear  still  more 
clearly  if  we  study  the  number  of  pupils  in  Europe,  following 
Lavasseur,^  and  the  proportion  of  pupils  in  the  public  and  private 
schools  to  the  population,  following  Bodio,^  together  with  the 
statistics  of  homicides  and  thefts  given  by  Ferri,  and  those  of 
revolutions  given  in  my  "  Crime  Politique."  We  shall  find  the 
following  data: 


Pupils  to 
100  inhab- 
itants 

Homicides 
(1880-82) 
to  100,000 

Thefts  to 
100.000 

Revolutions 
to  10,000.000 

Prussia 

17.8 

5.7 

246 

5 

Switzerland 

16.1 

16.4 

114 

80 

England' 

16.4 

5.6 

163 

7 

Netherlands  ^     .    .    .    . 

14.3 

5.6 

Sweden ' 

13.6 

13.0 

Austria 

12.5 

25.0 

ios 

5 

France    

14.5 

18.0 

103 

16 

Belgium '        

10.9 

18.0 

134 

Spain      

9.1 

74.0 

52.9 

55 

Italy 

7.6 

96.0 

150 

30 

Russia 

2.4 

14.0 

? 

^  "Bulletin  de  la  Soci^t6  de  Statistique,"  1895. 

2  "Di  Alcuni  Indici  Misuratori  de  Movimento  Economico,"  1891. 

'  Public  schools  only. 


no 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§50 


From  this  we  see  that  the  number  of  homicides  decreases  with 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  pupils,  except  in  the  case  of 
Russia  (with  only  14  homicides,  notwithstanding  the  minimum 
number  in  the  schools,  2.4),  and  of  Switzerland,  which  has  high 
figures  for  both  pupils  and  homicides.  Thefts  follow  the  oppo- 
site course.  They  rise  in  England,  Belgium,  and  Prussia  with 
the  greater  number  of  pupils  in  the  schools,  and  fall  in  Spain 
with  the  smaller  number.  Revolutionary  tendencies  give  con- 
tradictory results.  This  relation  is  maintained  to  a  certain  point 
everywhere  if  we  study  the  nations  severally.  In  Italy  the 
parallelism  between  homicide,  rape,  and  ignorance  is  complete, 
the  minimum,  mean,  and  maximum  of  ignorance  corresponding 
with  those  of  the  two  crimes  mentioned,  as  seen  in  the  following 
table: 

NuJiBEB  OP  Crimes  to  the  100,000  Inhabitants 

WITH    IlLITEHACT 


86-80% 

80-50% 

50-0% 

Homicides  ^ 

Rapes  1      

S2.3 

23.6 

41.0 

141.0 

22.9 

11.3 

63.0 

160.0 

6.6 

10  2 

Frauds! 

50  0 

Thefts* 

119  0 

We  have  seen  in  France  and  England  that  crimes  of  blood  are 
becoming  more  and  more  rare  in  the  large  cities,  where  they  are 
nearly  always  committed  by  peasants  and  mountaineers;  while 
crimes  against  property,  on  the  other  hand,  are  on  the  increase. 
A  similar  situation  prevails  in  Italy  with  regard  to  recidivists, 
just  because  they  are  more  educated.  In  Belgium  great  crimes 
have  decreased  each  year  since  1832,  falling  from  1  to  83,573  of 
the  population,  which  was  the  figure  for  the  year  mentioned, 
down  to  1  for  each  90,220  in  1855.  In  Switzerland  great  crimes 
have  decreased  40%  since  1852.     In  France  the  more  serious 


1896 


'  Bodio,  "Relazione    alia   Commissione    di    Statistica   Giudiziaria," 
»  Fern,  "Omicidio"  (Atlas),  1895. 


§51]      INFLUENCE  OF  EDUCATION  UPON  CRIME        111 

crimes,  those  passed  upon  by  the  assizes,  had  fallen  from  40  to 
the  100,000,  which  was  the  figure  in  1825,  to  11  to  the  100,000 
in  1881;  while  the  offenses  which  came  before  the  magistrates 
rose  from  48,000  to  205,000.  There  is,  it  is  true,  an  augmenta- 
tion of  crime  amounting  to  133%;  but  crimes  of  blood  have 
diminished,  while  sexual  crimes  have  been  on  the  increase.  From 
1826  to  1880  thefts  increased  238%,  frauds  323%,  breach  of 
trust  630%,  and  sexual  crimes  700%.  Vagrancy  is  four  times 
greater,  and  offenses  against  officials  five  times.  Bankruptcies 
have  risen  from  2000  up  to  8000,  and  while  the  number  of  mer- 
chants has  increased,  of  course,  this  increase  has  not  been  in  the 
same  proportion.  These  differences  express  the  influence  of 
education.  But  this  influence  has  been  more  remarkable  as  well 
as  more  favorable  in  England,^  where  from  1868  to  1892  the 
number  of  prisoners  fell  from  87,000  to  50,000,  and  the  number 
of  adult  criminals  from  31,295  to  29,825.  Yet  the  population 
increased  in  the  same  time  12%,  and  now  it  is  calculated  that 
there  are  but  21  illiterates  out  of  every  100  indicted.  This 
diminution  occurs  especially  in  London,  where  schools  are  more 
numerous  and  widely  diffused. 


§  5z.  Special  Criminality  of  the  Illiterate  and  of  the  Educated 

All  this  explains  a  phenomenon  which  appears  at  first  com- 
pletely self-contradictory,  namely,  that  education  now  in- 
creases crime  and  now  decreases  it.  When  education  is  not 
yet  diffused  in  a  country  and  has  not  yet  reached  its  full  devel- 
opment, it  at  first  increases  all  crimes  except  homicide.  But 
when  it  is  widely  disseminated  it  diminishes  all  the  violent 
crimes,  except,  as  we  shall  see,  the  less  serious  crimes,  the 
political  crimes,  or  the  commercial  or  sexual  crimes,  because 
these  increase  naturally  with  the  increase  of  human  inter- 
course, business,  and  cerebral  activity.  But  education  has  an 
indisputable  influence  upon  crime  in  changing  its  character  and 
making  it  less  savage.     Fayet  and  Lacassagne  show  that  in 

»  "English  Judicial  Statistics,"  1895;  Joly,  "Revue  de  Paris,"  No. 
21,  1895. 


112  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  51 

France:  (1)  Among  illiterates  the  crimes  which  lead  are  infanti- 
cide, abortion,  theft,  formation  of  criminal  bands,  robbery,  and 
arson;  (2)  among  those  who  can  read]  and  write  imperfectly, 
extortion,  threatening  letters,  blackmail,  robbery,  injury  to 
property,  and  assaults  predominate;  (3)  among  those  who 
have  received  a  moderate  education,  bribery,  forgery,  and 
threatening  letters  prevail;  (4)  among  the  well  educated  the 
predominant  crimes  are  forgeries  of  commercial  papers,  official 
crimes,  forgery  and  abstraction  of  public  documents,  and  politi- 
cal crimes  (op.  cit.).  The  minimum  of  forgeries  and  the 
maximum  of  infanticides  are  found  among  the  illiterate.  With 
the  convicts  of  a  higher  education  the  prevailing  crime  is  for- 
gery of  public  documents,  breach  of  trust,  and  swindling.  In- 
fanticides and  violent  crimes  are  lacking. 

Accordingly  there  is  a  type  of  crime  for  the  illiterate,  namely, 
the  savage  type;  and  one  for  the  educated,  the  milder,  but 
more  cunning  type.  In  the  same  way,  according  to  the  most 
recent  studies  of  Socquet  ^  we  see  that  in  France  the  illiterate 
criminals  gradually  diminished  in  the  period  1876-80  in  com- 
parison with  the  period  1831-35.  Homicides  and  murders 
have  decreased  among  them  by  half,  infanticides  and  abortions 
by  a  third,  and  sexual  crimes  nearly  a  half.  The  violent  crimes 
of  educated  criminals  are,  on  the  whole,  diminishing,  while 
their  other  crimes  are  nearly  at  a  standstill.  As  to  political 
crimes,  these  increase  constantly  among  the  educated.  History 
teaches  us  that  it  has  been  the  highly  civilized  states  (Athens, 
Genoa,  Florence)  which  furnished  the  maximum  number  of 
revolutions;  and  it  is  certainly  not  among  the  illiterate  that 
the  nihilists  and  anarchists  get  their  recruits,  but  among  the 
more  highly  educated.  Of  this  I  have  given  abundant  proof 
in  my  "  Crime  Politique."  In  Austria  the  crimes  which  pre- 
vail among  the  illiterate  are  robberies,  abductions,  infanticides, 
abortions,  murders,  bigamy,  homicides,  malicious  injury  to 
property,  and  assaults.  In  Italy,  following  the  remarkable 
study  of  Amati,2  we  find: 

»  "Contribution  k  I'fitude  de  la  Criminality  en  France." 
'     Istruzione  e  Delinquenza  in  Italia,"  1886. 


§51]      INFLUENCE  OF  EDUCATION  UPON  CRIME        113 


Crimes,  1881-83 

Illiterate 

Able  to  read 
and  write 

More  highly 
educated 

Political  crimes 

Frauds    

Homicides 

Thefts 

54% 
38% 
62% 
65% 
48% 
49% 

36% 

55% 
37% 
34% 

44% 
48% 

10.0  % 
7.0  % 
0.12% 
1-7  % 

Rapes 

Rebellions 

8.0  % 

3.1  % 

Among  500  individuals  who  had  a  higher  education  there  were 
in  1881-83  the  following  number  of  the  crimes  specified  (the 
second  figure  giving  the  number  to  the  1000) : 


Forgeries 76-152 

Homicides 44-  88 

Thefts 40-80 

Frauds 57-114 

Extortions      38-76 

Highway  robberies   ....  22-  44 

Sexual  crimes 34-  68 

Bankruptcies 33-66 

Perjuries 2-4 


Assaults 13-26 

Parricides      2-4 

Political  crimes 14-28 


Crimes  against  religion  . 
Destruction  of  property 

Arson 

Instigation  to  crime    .    . 
Abortions 


1-  2 
4-  8 
9-18 
6-12 
1-  2 


That  is  to  say,  the  figures  are  higher  for  forgery,  fraud,  sexual 
crime,  bankruptcy,  theft,  extortion,  and  homicide;  and  lower 
for  assault,  highway  robbery,  parricide,  and  arson.  Accord- 
ingly, while  the  illiterate  lead  in  homicide  and  theft,  the  fully 
and  partly  educated  together  show  a  high  figure  for  political 
crimes,  and  an  absolute  majority  of  the  rapes  and  frauds. 

But  it  should  be  observed  here  that  the  above  statistics  belong 
to  a  period  when  thought  was  completely  free  in  Italy,  and 
when,  therefore,  the  comparatively  few  political  uprisings  did 
not  draw  into  their  ranks  the  better  part  of  the  population; 
hence  the  relatively  large  number  of  illiterates.  Now,  however, 
those  condemned  for  political  crimes  belong  to  the  more  highly 
educated  strata  of  the  nation.  The  same  thing  is  triie  of  Russia, 
where  the  greatest  number  of  political  offenders  is  furnished  by 
the  educated  class.  Thus  from  1827  to  1846  the  nobles  exiled 
to  Siberia  for  political  causes  were  120  times  as  numerous  as 
the  peasants.    Of  100  women  condemned  for  political  crimes 


114  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES   [§§  52,  53 

in  Russia,  75  were  well  educated,  12  could  read  and  write,  and 
7  were  illiterate.^ 

It  cannot  be  said,  then,  that  education  always  acts  as  a 
preventive  of  crime,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  that  it  always 
impels  toward  crime.  When  it  is  really  difiFused  among  all 
classes,  it  has  a  beneficial  effect,  diminishing  the  number  of 
crimes  among  those  moderately  educated,  and  making  the  char- 
acter of  them  milder. 

§  52.  Education  in  the  Prisons 

However,  if  education  is  valuable  for  the  population  in  gen- 
eral, it  nevertheless  ought  not  to  be  extended  to  the  inmates  of 
prisons,  unless  it  is  accompanied  by  a  special  training  designed 
to  correct  the  passions  and  instincts  rather  than  to  develop  the 
intellect.  Elementary  education  is  positively  harmful  as  ap- 
plied to  the  ordinary  criminal;  it  places  in  his  hands  an  addi- 
tional weapon  for  carrying  on  his  crimes,  and  makes  a  recidivist 
of  him.  The  introduction  of  schools  into  the  prisons,  at  once 
bringing  bad  men  into  contact  with  each  other  and  developing 
their  intelligence  and  power,  explains,  to  my  mind,  the  great 
number  of  educated  recidivists.  For  statistics  show  us  that 
of  crimes  against  property,  made  easier  by  education,  recidi- 
vists committed  over  twice  as  many  (67.4%)  as  non-recidivists 
(28.47%),  while  their  crimes  against  persons  were  relatively 
much  fewer.  It  is  doubtless  the  elementary  instruction  given 
in  the  prisons  of  France,  Saxony,  and  Sweden  that  accounts 
for  the  large  number  of  forgeries  committed  by  recidivists. 
The  pickpocket  and  cut-throat  learn  in  prison,  at  the  expense 
of  the  state,  to  make  false  keys,  to  make  counterfeit  money, 
to  engrave  banknotes,  and  to  commit  burglaries. 

§  S3.  Dangers  of  Education 

"Knowledge,"  says  Seymour,  "is  power,  not  virtue.  It  may 
be  the  servant  of  good,  but  it  may  also  be  the  servant  of  evil." 
To  put  the  same  truth  in  other  words,  the  simple  sensory  knowl- 
edge of  the  form  of  the  letters  or  the  sound  which  indicates  an 

*  E.  N.  Tamowski,  "Juridicesky  Vestnik,"  1889. 


§53]     INFLUENCE  OF  EDUCATION  UPON  CRIME       115 

object,  or  the  knowledge  even  of  the  great  technical  and  sci- 
entific advances  which  have  been  made,  does  not  raise  the 
moral  plane  in  the  least  degree.  Indeed,  it  may  become,  on 
the  contrary,  a  powerful  instrument  for  evil,  by  creating  new 
crimes  that  more  easily  escape  the  clutches  of  the  law.  Thus 
the  advancement  of  science  may  enable  criminals  to  use  the 
railroad,  as  was  the  case  with  Tiebert  in  1845 ;  or  dynamite,  as 
with  Thomas;  or  the  telegraph  and  cipher  messages,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Venetian,  Fangin,  who  used  this  means  to  indicate  to 
his  accomplices  the  courier  who  was  to  be  robbed.  Caruso,  the 
bandit,  was  accustomed  to  say  that  if  he  had  known  the  alpha- 
bet he  would  have  conquered  the  world;  and  the  murderer 
Delpero  declared  at  the  foot  of  the  gallows  that  the  cause  of 
his  ruin  was  the  education  which  his  parents  had  procured 
for  him,  since  it  had  made  him  prefer  idleness  to  poorly  paid 
labor.  Finally,  all  criminals  learn,  by  reading  the  accounts  of 
trials,  of  which  they  are  very  fond,  to  put  into  practice  the  arts 
of  their  predecessors.  Thus,  among  150  vagrants,  Mayhew 
found  50  who  had  read  "Jack  Sheppard"  and  other  stories  of 
criminals,  and  who  declared  that  this  reading  had  inspired 
their  first  steps  in  a  life  of  crime. 

From  the  lowest  education  to  the  highest  among  us  Latins, 
with  whom  crime  is  continually  increasing,  there  is  no  teaching 
given  that  does  not  open  the  wound  rather  than  heal  it;  and 
especially  is  this  the  case  with  political  crimes.  We  live  in  a 
stirring  time  when  the  days  are  years  and  the  years  centuries, 
and  we  would  have  our  young  people  live  in  an  atmosphere 
thousands  of  years  old.  The  best  intelligence  has  not  time 
enough  to  take  in  that  part  of  knowledge  that  is  necessary  to 
all  (like  natural  history,  hygiene,  modern  languages,  and  eco- 
nomics), and  we  would  have  the  youth  spend  his  precious  hours 
in  learning  to  babble  dead  languages  and  dead  sciences,  and 
all  this  to  make  him  a  man  of  good  taste.  It  seems  ridiculous 
to  waste  ten  or  twelve  years  on  flowers  and  musical  scales. 
The  mighty  torrent  of  modern  life,  laden  with  facts,  passes 
before  us  and  we  do  not  see  it.  How  it  will  make  our  descend- 
ants smile  to  think  that  thousands  and  thousands  of  men  have 
seriously  believed  that  some  reluctantly  learned  and  quickly 


116  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  53 

forgotten  fragment  of  the  classics,  or,  worse  still,  the  dry  rules 
of  ancient  grammar,  were  the  best  means  of  developing  the 
mind  and  forming  the  character  of  a  young  man,  better  means 
than  the  exposition  of  the  most  important  facts,  better  means 
than  study  of  the  causes  of  those  facts.  In  the  meanwhile 
we  are  creating  generation  after  generation  whose  brains  are 
crammed  with  study  of  the  form  only,  and  not  of  the  substance; 
and,  worse  than  this  (since  the  form  may  be  transmitted  in  some 
masterpiece),  with  an  adoration  of  the  form  which  amounts  to 
fetichism,  and  is  the  more  false,  blind,  and  sterile  the  longer 
it  has  been  profitlessly  employed. 

It  is  from  this  sort  of  education  that  has  come  the  adoration 
of  violence  that  has  been  the  starting  point  of  all  our  rebels, 
from  Cola  di  Rienzi  to  Robespierre.  What  is  the  whole  classical 
education  but  a  continual  glorification  of  violence  in  all  its  forms.'* 
In  this  matter  all  political  parties  are  alike,  so  deep-seated  is 
evil.  The  clericals  cry  Hurrah!  at  the  dagger- thrust  of  Ravaillac, 
and  the  conservatives  do  likewise  at  the  wholesale  execution 
of  the  Communists  in  1871.  What  wonder,  then,  that  in  a 
society  saturated  with  violence,  violence  breaks  out  from  time 
to  time  on  all  sides  in  storm  and  lightning?  It  is  not  possible 
to  declare  with  impunity  that  violence  is  holy,  with  the  proviso 
that  it  is  to  be  used  only  in  a  certain  way,  for  sooner  or  later 
some  one  will  come  to  transfer  the  gospel  of  force  from  one 
political  creed  to  another. 

I  am  glad  that  my  illustrious  master  Taine  has  preceded 
me  in  this  line  of  thought.  In  his  last  pages  he  has  given  an 
almost  posthumous  admonition  to  us  poor  Latins,  so  vain- 
glorious, and  so  obstinately  attached  to  that  which  is  our  ruin. 

"The  true  learning,  the  true  education,"  writes  Taine,i  "is 
acquired  by  contact  with  things,  by  innumerable  sense-impres- 
sions which  a  man  receives  all  day  in  the  laboratory,  the  work- 
shop, the  court-room,  or  the  hospital,  impressions  which  enter 
by  the  ears,  the  eyes,  the  nose,  to  be  consciously  or  uncon- 
scously  assimilated  by  him,  and  which  sooner  or  later  suggest 
to  him  a  new  combination,  a  simplification,  an  economy,  an 
improvement,  an  invention.     Of  these  invaluable  contacts,  of 

*  "Revue  Philosoph.,"  1894-95. 


§53]     INFLUENCE  OF  EDUCATION  UPON  CRIME       117 

all  these  assimilable  and  indispensable  elements  of  mental  life, 
the  French  youth  is  deprived  just  at  the  most  fruitful  age.  For 
seven  or  eight  years  he  is  shut  up  in  school,  cut  off  from  the  per- 
sonal experience  that  would  give  him  a  correct  and  vivid  idea 
of  things,  of  men,  and  of  the  way  to  equip  himself  for  life. 

"It  is  too  much  to  demand  of  young  people  that  upon  a  set 
day  they  shall  present  themselves  in  the  examination-room  in 
the  possession  of  all  knowledge.  As  a  matter  of  fact  two  months 
after  the  examination  they  have  forgotten  everything;  but  in 
the  meantime  their  mental  vigor  declines,  freshness  and  fer- 
tility disappear.  The  accomplished  man,  or  rather  the  man 
who  is  no  longer  capable  of  any  change,  becomes  ticketed, 
resigned  to  a  life  of  routine,  perpetually  turning  the  same 
wheel. 

"On  the  other  hand,  the  Anglo-Saxons  [the  only  race  in 
Europe,  as  we  shall  see,  among  whom  criminality  is  declining] 
have  not  our  innumerable  special  schools.  Among  them  in- 
struction is  given  not  by  the  book,  but  through  the  object 
itself.  The  engineer,  for  example,  is  educated  not  in  the  school 
but  in  the  workshop,  a  thing  which  permits  each  man  to  reach 
the  grade  suited  to  his  intelligence:  workman  or  builder,  if  he 
can  rise  no  higher,  engineer,  if  his  talents  permit.  With  us,  on 
the  other  hand,  with  the  three  grades  of  instruction,  for  child- 
hood, youth,  and  young  manhood,  with  the  theoretic  and  scho- 
lastic instruction  imparted  by  means  of  benches  and  books,  the 
mental  tension  is  simply  increased  and  prolonged  by  the  pros- 
pect of  examinations,  diplomas,  degrees,  and  commissions; 
while  our  schools  do  not  give  the  indispensable  equipment, 
namely,  a  sound  and  firm  understanding,  will,  and  nerves.  So 
the  entrance  of  the  student  into  the  world  and  his  first  steps  in 
the  field  of  practical  action  are  oftenest  but  a  succession  of  un- 
fortunate falls,  from  which  he  emerges  bruised  even  if  not  crip- 
pled. It  is  a  rough  and  dangerous  experiment.  His  mental  poise 
is  disturbed,  and  is  in  danger  of  not  being  reestablished.  The 
disillusioning  is  too  rude  and  too  violent." 

Finally,  education  often  incites  to  evil  by  creating  new  needs 
and  aspirations  without  giving  the  power  to  gratify  them.  Es- 
pecially is  this  brought  about  by  the  mingling  of  good  and  bad 
elements  in  the  school,  an  influence  the  more  dangerous  when 
the  teacher  himself  inclines  to  evil,  particularly  in  sexual  rela- 
tions, as  has  been  observed  in  Italy  and  Germany.  ^ 

In  this  matter  I  am  much  of  Dante's  opinion: 
1  Oettingen,  op.  cU. 


118  CRBIE:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§53 

"Che  dove  rargomento  della  mente 
S'aggiunge  al  mal  voler  ed  alia  possa, 
Nessun  riparo  vi  puo  far  la  gente."  ^ 

"You  reckon,"  says  Joly,  "upon  the  school's  supplying  the 
place  of  the  parents,  who  are  kept  occupied  at  their  work,  or 
who  lack  the  knowledge  or  ability  to  do  their  duty  by  their 
children;  and  you  count,  on  the  other  hand,  on  the  family  to 
supply  the  deficiency  of  the  moral  training  of  the  school.  But 
while  each  waits  for  the  other,  they  unite  in  accomplishing 
nothing." 

'  "Where  intelligence  is  united  with  power  and  wickedness,  the  efforts 
of  men  are  vain."     ("Inferno,"  XXXI.) 


CHAPTER  IX 

INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC   CONDITION  —  WEALTH 
§54. 

THE  influence  of  wealth  is  a  factor  much  more  disputed 
than  that  of  education,  and  the  most  impartial  examination 
of  the  facts  fails  to  give  a  complete  solution;  for  the  investigator 
fails  to  secure  a  suflBcient  number  of  'decisive  proofs.  Bodio 
himself  in  his  classic  work,  "Di  Alcuni  Indici  Numeratori  del 
Movimento  Economico  in  Italia  "  (1890),  shows  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  give  an  answer  to  the  question.  What  is  the  actual 
wealth  of  Italy?  It  is  impossible  to  place  a  valuation  upon  all 
the  agricultural  and  mineral  wealth,  because  we  have  no  exact 
statistics  of  mining  and  agriculture.  A  statement  of  all  indi- 
vidual properties  is  impossible  for  lack  of  a  simultaneous  ap- 
praisal of  all  real  and  personal  property.  It  is  necessary,  there- 
fore, to  rely  upon  private  statements  as  found  in  deeds-of-gift 
and  wills.  The  average  wage  must  be  arrived  at  hypothetically 
upon  the  basis  of  the  minimum  necessary  for  living,  which  itself, 
in  turn,  is  based  upon  conjectural  data.  To  estimate  wealth 
on  the  basis  of  taxes  alone  is  seen  plainly  to  be  impossible  when 
one  reflects  that  the  errors  of  the  assessors  by  themselves  would 
be  sufficient  to  overthrow  all  calculations,  without  considering 
the  numbers  of  business  men,  bankers,  and  even  professional 
men  who  escape  taxation  more  or  less  completely.  This  is 
why  the  results  in  this  division  of  the  subject,  however  one 
may  attack  it,  hardly  succeed  in  establishing  an  exact  relation 
between  wealth  and  the  more  important  crimes. 

§55.  Taxes 

The  following  tables  present  a  comparison  of  the  number  of 
the  principal  crimes  compared  with  the  sum  total  of  all  taxes 
paid  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  various  provinces,  including 


120 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§55 


taxes  upon  consumption  (internal  revenue,  tobacco,  salt,  etc.), 
direct  taxes  (farm  property,  real  estate  generally,  personal 
property,  etc.),  and  taxes  upon  business. 

Maximtth  Wealth 


Average  tax 

paid  per 
capita,  in 

Province 

Sexual 
Crimes 

Frauds 

Thefts 

Homicides  ^ 

francs 

74.9 

Leghorn 

26.4 

76 

224 

21.3 

71.S 

Rome 

22.1 

65 

329 

27.8 

55.1 

Naples 

20.7 

48 

161 

26.7 

54.5 

Milan 

11.7 

47 

157 

3.4 

45.6 

Florence 

12.6 

48 

120 

9.9 

42.5 

Genoa 

17.2 

59 

147 

7.8 

41.4 

Venice 

14.3 

138 

246 

6.6 

38.4 

Turin 

17.9 

103 

121 

9.1 

33.3 

Bologna 

11.3 

104 

216 

7.6 

33.0 

Cremona 

6.8 

59 

134 

2.3 

31.7 

Ferrara 

7.2 

33 

387 

6.1 

31.4 

Mantua 

15.6 

88 

254 

7.8 

15.6 

70.6 

206 

11.3 

Mean  Wealth 


^'.i  J^il 

Taxes 

Province 

Sexual 
Crimes 

Frauds 

Thefts 

Homicides 

26.9 

Port  Maurice 

10.1 

94 

135 

6.2 

25.4 

Novara 

8.1 

34 

100 

6.3 

25.1 

Grosseto 

22.4 

50 

105 

15.4 

24.6 

Caserta 

17.0 

44 

189 

31.2 

24.4 

Cuneo 

6.9 

52 

87 

8.8 

24.1 

Ancona 

11.7 

128 

100 

19.0 

23.5 

Palermo 

21.8 

35 

150 

42.5 

23.3 

Lecce 

16.7 

52 

126 

10.3 

23.0 

Bergama 

9.5 

38 

115 

4.0 

22.5 

Forli 

7.4 

172 

174 

21.5 

20.4 

Cagliari 

17.2 

68 

296 

21.8 

20.3 

Perugia 

12.7 

32 

140 

15.9 

13.4 

66 

143 

17.0 

1  The  data  are  all  from  Bodio  (1879-83),  except  the  thefts,  which  are  from 
Ferri.  The  taxes  are  taken  from  the  "Annuario  del  Ministero  della  Finanze, 
Statistica  Fin."  (1886-87). 


55]         INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION  121 

Minimum  Wealth 


Taxes 

Province 

Sexual 
Crimes 

Frauds 

Thefts 

Homicides 

10.5 

Belluno 

6.3 

25 

108 

5.1 

13.6 

Sondrio 

13.0 

31 

120 

5.4 

14.0 

Teramo 

14.7 

37 

108 

20.4 

14.7 

Cosenza 

34.8 

30 

125 

38.2 

15.0 

Campobasso 

22.2 

42 

190 

41.2 

15.4 

Aquila 

18.5 

44 

118 

31.1 

15.8 

Chieti 

31.1 

76 

119 

25.7 

16.3 

Reggio  Calabria 

30.5 

26 

214 

30.5 

16.4 

Messina 

17.9 

29 

148 

19.2 

16.5 

Ascoli 

13.3 

40 

82 

11.9 

16.6 

Avellina 

23.3 

42 

179 

45.4 

18.3 

Macerata 

9.8 

102 

273 

13.0 

19.6 

43 

148 

23.0 

The  next  table  is  formed  by  arranging  these  figures  in  groups, 
and  adding  to  them  the  data  for  the  years  1890-93  furnished 
by  Bodio,  in  which  he  includes,  besides  the  thefts  tried  at  the 
assizes,  those  coming  before  the  minor  courts: 


Wealth,  1885-86 

Wealth,  1890-93  (Bodio) 

Maximum 

Mean 

Minimum 

Maximum 

Mean 

Minimum 

Fraud    .    .    .    . 
Sexual  crimes  . 
Thefts  .... 
Homicides    .    . 

^  Bodio  incli 

70.6 

15.6 

206.0 

11.3 

ides  rural  th 

66.0 

13.4 

143.0 

17.0 

efts. 

43.0 

19.4 

148.0 

23.0 

55.13 
16.15 

361.28 
8.34 

39.45 

15.28 

329.51 

13.39 

37.39 

21.49 

419.05  » 

15.40 

From  which  it  appears  that  fraudulent  crimes  increase 
positively  with  the  increase  of  wealth,  and  the  same  is  true  of 
thefts,  but  if  we  add  rural  thefts  we  get  the  maximum  where 
wealth  is  least;  and  this  last  is  always  true  of  homicides.  This 
shows  more  clearly  the  influence  of  mere  poverty  upon  the 
minor  crimes.    We  have  already  shown  in  the  chapter  on  sub- 


122  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§56 

sistence  that,  in  Germany,  while  thefts  in  general  became  less 
frequent  in  the  years  when  the  price  of  grain  was  lowest,  and 
increased  when  the  price  was  very  high,  thefts  from  the  forests, 
on  the  other  hand,  pursued  the  contrary  course.  But  these 
thefts,  which  still  recall  the  ancient  time  when  land  and  pasture 
were  common  property,  are  bound  up  with  old  tradition,  and 
only  exceptionally  represent  the  immorality  of  a  country.  The 
results  for  sexual  crimes  are  more  unexpected.  They  show 
their  minimum  in  Italy  where  wealth  is  moderate,  and  their 
maximum  where  there  is  the  minimum  of  wealth.  Italy  thus 
presents  an  exception,  as  the  usual  course  of  sexual  crimes  is 
to  increase  with  the  increase  of  wealth.  An  examination  of 
the  figures  shows,  likewise,  that  there  are  individual  provinces 
which  give  figures  very  far  from  the  average  of  their  several 
groups. 

§  56.  Inheritance  Taxes 

De  Foville  believes  that  it  is  possible  to  estimate  private 
wealth  upon  the  basis  of  the  declarations  in  wills;  ^  but  if  we 
study  Pantaleoni's  *  very  valuable  statistics  for  Italy,  we  shall 
see  with  what  difficulty  we  shall  arrive  at  any  idea  of  the 
relation  of  crime  to  wealth.  In  fact,  in  studying  the  table 
given  on  the  following  page,  we  draw  the  conclusion  that  the 
richest  districts.  Piedmont,  Liguria,  Lombardy,  and  Tuscany, 
have  a  proportion  of  crimes  against  property  less  than  the 
average  of  the  kingdom;  the  same  is  true  of  the  districts 
which  in  wealth  come  nearest  the  average,  Venice  and 
Emilia.  The  poorest  regions,  Sardinia,  Sicily,  and  Naples, 
have  a  high  criminality;  but  Umbria  and  the  Marches,  which 
are  also  poor,  show  a  very  low  figure  for  crime.  Thefts  are 
very  rare  in  Tuscany,  Lombardy,  Emilia,  Piedmont,  and 
Liguria,  which  are  the  richest  districts,  and  also  in  one  of  the 
poorest,  the  Marches.  In  Sicily  they  are  moderately  numerous, 
and  in  Venice  a  little  more  so,  a  fact  to  be  explained  by  the 

J  De  Foville,  "La  France  ficonomique,"  1870. 
«l  u^n^"^  -IPf^  Regiona  d 'Italia  in  Ordine  aUe  loro  Ricchezze  ed 
fifi  ?S  V    •^"''"*Y',*?     (Giomale  degU  Economisti,  1891);  Id..  "L'En- 
(G?om  EcSr  1890)  ^^chezza  Privata  in  Italia  dal  1872  al  1888" 


§56] 


INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION 


123 


intense  misery  of  the  agricultural  population  of  the  latter  dis- 
trict. The  richest  district,  Latium,  and  the  poorest,  Sardinia, 
have  the  greatest  number  of  thefts;  so  that  here  there  is  no 
evident  parallelism  with  wealth.  Bodio  observes  that  in  the 
ease  of  Latium  it  is  necessary  to  take  account  of  the  disturbing 
influence  of  the  capital  upon  both  crime  and  wealth.  The  in- 
heritance taxes  are  in  this  case  an  unreliable  measure  of  the 
wealth  of  the  locality,  since  there  is  capital  concentrated  here 
which  belongs  to  other  districts.  Besides  this,  there  is  at  Rome, 
on  account  of  special  conditions  of  rural  property  and  the  sys- 
tem of  cultivation  in  use,  a  very  Umited  number  of  persons 
who  have  immense  properties,  a  fact  which  has  a  disproportion- 
ate effect  upon  the  inheritance  taxes.  The  smallest  number 
of  frauds  is  found  in  Umbria  and  the  Marches;  then  come 
Tuscany,  Emilia,  Venice,  Piedmont,  Liguria,  and  Lombardy, 
which  are  the  richer  districts.  The  district  of  Naples  furnishes 
fewer  frauds  by  a  great  deal  than  it  would  seem  it  should 
because  of  its  comparative  poverty. 

Indictments.     (Average  to  100,000  Population,  1887-89) 


Average 
Wealth 

Thefts 

Frauds 

Highway 
robberies 

Homicides 

Assaults 

Latium   .    .    . 

3333 

639 

116 

18 

25 

513 

Piedmont  ) 
Liguria       )    ■ 

2746 

267 

44 

7 

7 

164 

Lombardy  .    . 

2400 

227 

44 

3 

3 

124 

Tuscany     .    . 

2164 

211 

34 

6 

7 

165 

Venice     .    .    . 

1935 

389 

43 

3 

4 

98 

Reggie    .    .    . 

1870 

320 

49 

7 

13 

287 

Emilia     .    .    . 

1762 

250 

38 

6 

6 

130 

Sicily  .... 

1471 

346 

65 

16 

26 

410 

Naples    .    .    . 

1333 

435 

47 

6 

21 

531 

Marches  ) 
Umbria   )  '    ' 

1227 

222 

33 

3 

10 

239 

Sardinia      .    . 

670 

113 

14 

20 

277 

The  minimum  number  of  highway  robberies  is  shown  by 
Venice  and  Lombardy  (rich)  and  by  Umbria  and  the  Marches 
(poor);    the  medium   number  by  Tuscany,   Emilia,   Naples, 


124  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES   [§§  57,  58 

Piedmont,  and  Liguria.  Sardinia  and  Sicily,  which  are  poor, 
are  joined  with  the  wealthy  district  of  Latium  in  giving  the 
maximum.    The  great  contradictions  are  very  apparent. 

§  57.  Lack  of  Employment 

One  would  be  tempted  to  believe  at  once  that  unemploy- 
ment must  exercise  a  perceptible  influence  upon  criminality. 
It  is,  however,  of  Uttle  importance.  In  New  South  Wales  ^ 
the  effect  of  periods  of  idleness  upon  the  workmen  is  almost 
nothing.  Wright  ^  maintains  that  at  the  time  of  industrial 
depressions  all  crimes  are  increased,  but  he  presents  no  proof. 
When  he  says  that  of  220  convicts  in  Massachusetts,  147  were 
without  regular  work,  and  that  68%  of  criminals  have  no  occu- 
pation, he  only  bears  witness  that  criminals  do  not  like  to 
work,  a  fact  that  is  very  well  known.  In  the  United  States 
82%  of  the  murderers  about  whom  the  facts  were  ascertain- 
able were  occupied  when  they  committed  their  crime,  and  only 
18%  were  without  work.'  It  seems,  then,  that  unemployment 
is  not  a  cause  of  crimes  of  violence.^  The  fact  that  the  majority 
of  criminals  have  almost  never  a  settled  trade  does  not  contra- 
dict this.  They  never  had  an  occupation  and  never  wanted 
to  have  one,  while  the  real  unemployed  are  those  who  have 
had  work  and  lost  it  through  circumstances  beyond  their  con- 
trol, or  practically  so,  allowing  for  strikes. 

§58.  Days  of  Work 

A  surer  criterion  for  this  question  is  to  be  found  in  the 
number  of  days'  wages  equivalent  to  the  annual  price  of 
food    for    one    individual.     (See    Table.^)     This    approaches 

*  Coghlan,  op.  cit. 

*  Wright,  "The  Relations  of  Economic  Conditions  to  the  Causes  of 
Crime,"  Philadelphia,  1891. 

»  B08C0,  "L'Omicidio  negli  Stati  Uniti  d'America,"  1895. 

!  Su™^*'^  Fornasari  di  Verce,  op.  cit.,  chaps.  32-33,  44-48. 
*u-  ifi  ^°'"P*'"80M  of  criminality  on  the  different  nations  set  forth  in 
this  table  must  be  received  with  some  caution  because  of  the  different 
moral  and  legislative  conditions  in  the  different  countries  —  a  thing  to  be 
especially  noted,  as  Bodio  observes,  with  reference  to  sexual  crimes.  It 
IS  an  unportant  fact,  however,  that  the  figures  for  homicides  given  in  the 
latest  statistics  (Bodil,  "Sul  Movimento  della  Delinquenza  nel  1893,"  p.  51) 
do  not  change  the  relative  position  of  the  countries,  except  that  England 
takes  the  first  place  and  Scotland  the  second. 


§58] 


INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION 


125 


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126  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§59 

closely  to  the  study  which  we  have  already  made  of  the  cost 
of  subsistence. 

We  see  here  (1)  that  excess  of  labor  in  connection  with  a 
minimum  wage,  that  is  to  say,  with  a  lack  of  proper  nourish- 
ment, has  a  certain  correspondence  with  homicide.  In  fact, 
Scotland,  England,  and  Ireland,  which  have  the  minimum 
number  of  days'  work,  have  also  the  minimum  of  homicides, 
0.51,  0.56, 1.05;  and  Spain  and  Italy,  which  have  the  maximum, 
have  the  maximum  of  homicides,  8.25,  9.53.  (2)  Further, 
there  is  a  certain  correspondence  in  the  case  of  assaults.  Eng- 
land, Ireland,  and  Scotland,  which  have  the  minimum  necessary 
days  of  work,  127,  have  also  the  minimum  number  of  assaults, 
2.67,  6.24,  11.59;  Austria  and  Italy  have  a  maximum  number 
of  days  of  work,  152  and  163,  vnth.  the  maximum  of  assaults 
likewise,  155,  230.  But  there  is  at  the  same  time  an  exception 
in  the  case  of  Spain,  which  has  a  small  number  of  assaults,  with 
a  large  number  of  days,  and  also  in  the  case  of  Belgium,  which 
shows  a  large  number  of  assaults,  175.34,  with  only  136  days 
of  work,  a  fact  certainly  to  be  traced  to  the  influence  of  alcohol- 
ism. (3)  The  influence  is  reversed  in  the  case  of  sexual  offences. 
Of  these  one  frequently  observes  the  lower  numbers  where 
the  number  of  days'  work  required  is  highest.  Thus  Spain, 
where  154  days  are  required,  has  but  1.03  sexual  crimes;  while 
Belgium,  which  has  next  to  the  smallest  number  of  days  of 
work,  130,  has  next  to  the  highest  number  of  these  offenses. 
The  United  Kingdom,  however,  which  shows  the  minimum 
number  of  days,  has  the  second  lowest  number  of  sexual  crimes. 
(4)  The  number  of  thefts  is  apparently  in  no  way  affected, 
for  we  see  all  degrees  of  this  crime  in  countries  with  both  high 
and  low  figures  as  to  days  of  work,  as  in  Spain,  Belgium,  France, 
Italy,  etc. 

§  59.  Savings  Banks 

I  have  thought  that  the  number  of  the  depositors  in  the  sav- 
ings banks  would  give  more  reliable  data  for  the  real  wealth  of 
a  country,  because  this  would  give  the  measure  of  the  principal 
source  of  wealth,  —  foresight  and  economy,  —  and  hence  meas- 
ure how  prevalent  among  the  people  are  the  forces  that  inhibit 


§59] 


INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION 


127 


vice  and  crime.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  have  already  seen  that 
in  France  wealth  is  in  direct  relation  to  the  lower  birth-rate, 
which  at  bottom  corresponds  to  greater  foresight  and  to  greater 
inhibitive  power. 

According  to  Coghlan  (op.  cit.)  we  find  in  Europe: 


Persons  to  each 

savings-bank 

book 

Crimes  to  100,000  inhabitants 

Homicide 

Theft 

Switzerland    .... 

Denmark 

Sweden 

England 

Prussia 

France    

Austria 

Italy 

4.5 

5 

7 
10 
10 
12 
14 
25 

16 

13 

13 
5.Q 
5.7 

18 

25 

96 

114 
114 

ies 

246 
103 
103 
150 

These  figures  show  how  homicides  decrease  as  the  number  of 
bank  books  increases,  while  the  contrary  is  true  of  thefts.  In 
Italy,  it  is  true,  from  the  very  limited  data  that  we  have,  we 
see  that  the  greatest  number  of  savings-bank  books,  while  cor- 
responding, as  elsewhere,  with  the  smallest  number  of  homicides, 
corresponds  also  with  the  smallest  number  of  thefts.^  The  aver- 
age of  the  different  crimes  in  the  20  Italian  provinces  that  have 
the  greatest  number  of  savings-bank  books  (1  to  from  3  to  6 
inhabitants),  in  the  20  with  the  smallest  number  (1  to  from  15 
to  24),  and  in  the  20  that  have  a  medium  number  (1  to  from 
8  to  13),  is  as  follows: 

Average  number  of  crimes  in  20  provinces  in  which  number 
of  books  is  — 


Maximum 

Intermediate 

Minimum 

Fraudulent  crimes    . 
Sexual  crimes     .    .    . 

Thefts 

Homicides      .... 

57 

11 

132 

10 

45 
12.6 
133 
12.6 

45 

20 
160 
27.4 

^  "Annuario  Statistico  Italiano,"  1892. 


128  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§60 

As  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  taxes  in  Italy,  so  it  is  here; 
where  there  is  less  foresight  and  saving,  as  evidenced  by  the 
number  of  savings-bank  books,  there  are  more  crimes  of  blood, 
thefts,  and  rapes,  but  less  swindling,  while  these  relations  are 
just  reversed  for  the  maximum  and  moderate  degrees  of  wealth. 
This  simply  means  that  a  country  still  barbarous  is  more  in- 
cUned  to  violence  than  to  cunning.  But  the  same  peculiarity 
with  regard  to  Italy  that  we  noted  in  connection  with  the  taxes 
is  again  apparent  here,  namely,  that  rapes,  which  elsewhere 
increase  with  wealth,  here  are  most  common  in  the  poorest 
provinces. 

However,  where  race  and  climate  already  impel  to  evil, 
wealth,  as  I  have  already  said,  can  do  nothing.  Thus  we  find  a 
high  number  of  homicides  in  the  richest  provinces,  hke  Palermo 
with  42,  Rome  with  27,  Naples  with  26,  and  Leghorn  with  21. 
These  apparent  exceptions  are  explained  by  the  geographical 
position  of  Palermo  and  Naples,  by  race  at  Leghorn,  and  in 
Rome  by  race,  abuse  of  alcohol,  and  political  conditions.  The 
contrary  is  true  of  the  poorer  provinces  in  which  geographical 
position,  climate,  and  race  exaggerate  the  influence  of  poverty; 
for  the  highest  figures  are  to  be  found  in  the  southern  and  in- 
sular provinces.  In  the  case  of  sexual  crimes  also  there  are 
analogous  exceptions  and  explanations,  since  a  large  number 
are  to  be  found  in  the  rich  provinces  of  Leghorn  (26)  and  Rome 
(22),  while  among  the  poor  provinces  a  very  small  number  is 
shown  by  Reggio,  Emilia,  Vicenza  (4),  Belluno  and  Rovigo 
(5),  Udine  (7),  etc.  Here  again  the  explanation  is  evidently 
ethnic  and  geographic.  This  proves  indirectly  that  the  high 
figures  shown  by  the  poorer  provinces  in  southern  Italy  and 
the  islands  are  connected  not  with  economic  peculiarities,  but 
with  race  and  climate. 


§  6o.   Savings  in  France 

As  regards  France,  by  estimating  the  wealth  in  the  several 
departments  on  the  basis  of  the  number  of  savings-bank  books 
to  1000  inhabitants,  we  find  that  crimes  invariably  increase 
directly  as  wealth  increases.    Thus: 


§60]        INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION  129 

Departments  where  the  degree  of  wealth  is  — 


Average  number  of 

Homicides 

Thefts 

Rapes 

Minimum 

Medium 

Maximum 

64 
86 
89 

83 

99 

186 

171 
26 
29  2 

1  Minimum  wealth,  0  to  100  books  to  the  1000  inhabitants  (Corsica  20,  Ar- 
deche,  97). 

Medium  wealth,  100  to  200  books  (Lot  101,  Loire-et-Cher,  190). 
Maximum  wealth,  200  to  406  books  (Seine  201,  Sarthe  406). 

2  "Annuaire  d'Economie  Politique,"  Paris,  1886. 


The  striking  difference  of  the  influence  of  savings  in  France 
and  in  Italy  is  explained,  up  to  a  certain  point,  in  the  same 
way  that  we  have  explained  the  difference  that  we  found  be- 
tween the  two  countries  in  the  influence  of  density  (see  Chap- 
ter V);  namely,  that  it  is  to  the  richest  districts  of  France, 
where  manufacturing  is  most  developed,  that  the  emigrants  flow; 
and  these  commit,  in  general,  four  times  as  many  crimes  as  the 
French.  Now  from  1851  to  1886  the  number  of  immigrants 
into  France  tripled,  and  the  quality  of  the  immigrants  deteri- 
orated as  their  numbers  increased;  for  in  the  beginning  it  is  the 
better  elements  that  come  in,  but  later,  when  the  current  that 
carries  men  from  one  country  to  another  becomes  too  strong 
it  carries  the  worst  elements  with  it  (Joly).  The  department  of 
Nord  has  four  times  more  foreigners  than  Boiiches-du-Rhone, 
and  19  times  more  than  Herault;  but  it  has  9  times  more  natu- 
ralizations than  the  former,  and  75  times  more  than  the  latter. 
That  is  to  say,  the  foreign  element  in  Nord  is  much  more  stable 
and  assimilable,  being  largely  Belgian,  while  Herault  is  much 
frequented  by  Spaniards.  Immigrants  are  also  drawn  into 
France  by  the  low  birth-rate  and  by  the  frequency  of  strikes, 
which  give  them  hope  of  finding  work.^ 

In  southern  Italy  climatic  and  ethnic  factors  come  into  col- 


^  Joly,  "France  Criminelle." 


130  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§61 

lision  with  the  economic  factor.  We  have  already  seen  that  in 
consequence  of  the  joint  effect  of  the  Semitic  element  in  the 
population,  and  the  hot  climate,  all  crimes  against  persons,  and 
in  part  those  against  property,  are  abnormally  increased.  But 
it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  these  explanations 
are  sufficient.  We  have  still  to  look  for  a  graver  cause.  If  we 
compare  certain  districts  of  Italy,  like  Piedmont  and  Lombardy, 
with  parts  of  France  that  are  similar  in  race  and  climate,  we 
shall  see  that  under  nearly  identical  conditions  opposite  phe- 
nomena occur.  In  Italy  the  greater  savings  correspond  with 
the  smaller  number  of  crimes,  while  in  France  the  contrary 
happens.  Here  we  must  see  the  cause  in  the  fact  that  in  France 
the  maximum  wealth  is  enormously  greater  than  in  Italy,  at 
least  four  times  as  great,  in  fact.  This  is  the  more  important 
since  in  many  places  in  France  this  wealth,  being  too  quickly 
acquired,  drives  its  possessors  to  the  greatest  debauchery,  so 
that,  as  Joly  well  puts  it,  to  amuse  oneself  and  to  debauch  one- 
self become  synonymous.  We  find  a  direct  proof  of  this  in  the 
fact  that  in  Italy  moderate  and  maximum  wealth  both  lead  to 
the  same  results,  just  because  there  is  so  much  resemblance 
between  them;  while  in  France,  on  the  contrary,  the  maximum 
degree  of  wealth  differs  enormously  from  moderate  means,  and 
in  consequence  produces  contrary  results.  In  Italy  the  increase 
of  savings  is  an  effect  of  economy  rather  than  of  positive  wealth, 
while  in  France,  at  least  in  the  manufacturing  districts,  espe- 
cially in  Herault  and  Boiiches-du-Rhone,  savings  accounts  are 
an  indication  of  a  wealth  so  great  that  it  too  often  degenerates 
into  an  occasion  for  wild  speculation.  Hence  it  is  that  we  find 
all  the  advantages  of  wealth  in  one  countrj^  and  all  the  disad- 
vantages in  the  other.  Moderate  wealth,  slowly  accumulated, 
restrains  from  crime;  inordinate  wealth  is  no  longer  a  rein,  but 
a  spur  and  an  incentive  to  crime. 

§  6i.  Agriculture  and  Manufacturing 

In  fact,  where  manufacturing  crowds  agriculture  hard,  and 
still  more  where  it  displaces  it  entirely,  we  see  the  number  of 
crimes  increase  immediately.  Indeed,  if  we  divide  France  (as 
in  the  study  "Sur  la  Criminalite  pendant  50  Ans"  above)  into 


61] 


INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION 


131 


agricultural,  mixed,  and  manufacturing  districts,  we  see  that 
crime  nearly  always  increases  as  we  pass  from  the  first  named 
to  the  last.  Of  42  agricultural  departments  only  11,  or  26%,  go 
beyond  the  average  number  of  assassinations  in  France;  while 
the  average  is  exceeded  by  10  out  of  the  26  departments  of 
mixed  industry,  or  38%,  and  by  7  out  of  17  manufacturing 
departments,  or  41%.  Rapes  upon  adults  and  crimes  against 
persons  show  similar  results. 

Percentage  of   departments   exceeding  the   average   of   all 
France  in: 


Rapes 

Crimes  against 
persons 

Agricultural  Departments  (42)  .    .    . 
Mixed  (26) 

33% 
39% 

52% 

48% 
39% 

Manufacturing  (17) 

59% 

These  figures  are  certainly  to  be  explained  by  aggregations 
of  population  and  the  coming  in  of  immigrants. 

"In  the  department  of  Herault,"  writes  Joly,  "fraud  came  in 
permanently  with  wealth.  Never  were  there  more  attempts  at 
bribery,  whether  of  the  local  oflScials  or  of  the  highest  represent- 
atives of  the  central  administration.  ...  A  case  has  been  cited 
to  me  in  which  the  entire  municipal  council  fraudulently  evaded 
the  payment  of  their  own  taxes.  This  evil  was  the  greater  for 
going  unpunished,  the  jury  having  brought  in  an  acquittal.  .  .  . 

"Was  not  this  general  demoralization  produced,  or  hastened 
and  aggravated  in  any  case,  by  the  crisis  in  wine-growing,  which 
has  permitted  these  people  since  1874  to  make  enormous  gains 
with  their  wines?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  in  1874  that 
Herault  passed  from  the  5th  place  as  regards  criminality,  up 
to  the  61st,  and  in  1884  it  went  on  to  the  81st."  ^ 

"From  the  day,"  wT-ites  Joly  again,  "when  the  peasants, 
hitherto  poor,  could  change  their  uncultivated  land  into  vine- 
yards, from  the  day  when,  thanks  to  the  railroads,  their  prod- 
ucts increased  enormously  in  value  before  their  eyes  .  .  .  from 
that  day  they  became  greedy.  .  .  .  The  man  who  has  gambled 
and  won  in  the  stock  exchange  dreams  only  of  stocks  and  bonds, 
and  of  cornering  the  market.    Now  all  wealth  gained  without 

^  Joly,  "La  France  Criminelle,"  p.  112. 


132  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§62 

effort  resembles  a  little  money  won  by  gambling,  and  has  the 
same  effect  upon  the  mind.  'It  is  good  fortune,'  said  the  com- 
missioner of  Cette,  'that  has  ruined  this  country.'" 

When  Bocage  was  poor  it  was  honest.  "Now  those  who 
steal  have  possessions  themselves,  and  the  well-to-do  peasants 
commit  more  crimes  than  the  vagrants"  (Joly).  In  the  east  in 
the  department  of  Eure,  and  in  the  west  in  Calvados,  manu- 
facturing and  agriculture  are  backward,  and  there  is  little  crim- 
inality. In  Vire  the  inhabitants  Uve  by  working  the  ground 
and  crime  is  almost  unknown. 

§  6a.  Wealth  as  a  Cause  of  Crime 

Those,  consequently,  who  affirm  that  criminality  is  always 
an  effect  of  poverty,  have  not  considered  the  other  side  of  the 
question,  and  observed  the  cases  where  crime  is  the  effect  of 
wealth.  Rapidly  acquired  wealth,  which  is  not  balanced  by  a 
high  character  or  by  a  lofty  religious  or  political  idealism,  is 
harmful  rather  than  helpful.  Spencer  also  has  said  of  wealth, 
that  according  as  the  fundamental  character  of  a  people  is  good 
or  bad,  it  leads  to  virtue  or  vice;  and  especially  is  the  latter 
the  effect  of  excessive  wealth,  which,  like  excessive  power  or 
excessive  education,  is  a  natural  instrument  of  despotism,  of  all 
sorts  of  sexual  and  alcoholic  abuses  and,  in  consequence,  of 
crime.  Accordingly,  wealth  is  now  a  check,  now  a  spur  to  crime, 
just  as  we  have  seen  is  the  case  with  education,  civilization,  and 
density  of  population,  and  as  we  shall  see  to  be  true  of  rehgion. 

Here  is  the  criterion  which  must  especially  be  kept  in  mind 
in  the  aetiology  of  crime.  For  according  to  our  character  and 
stage  of  development  the  same  cause  now  destroys  and  now 
saves  us.  Thus  we  shall  see  apparent  contradictions  disappear 
and  even  contribute  toward  a  full  explanation.  Thus  in  the 
United  States,  those  states  which  have  the  highest  criminality 
have  now  the  maximum  and  now  the  minimum  of  wealth  (as 
shown  by  the  data  obtained  directly  from  individuals  in  taking 
the  census).!  We  see  there  that  the  richest  states  have  a  low 
criminality.  Rhode  Island,  for  example  ($183  per  capita),  has 
a  criminal  figure  of  0.11;  Massachusetts,  with  nearly  the  same 
»  Scribner's  "Statistical  Atlas  of  the  United  States,"  1880. 


§63]         INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION  133 

degree  of  wealth  ($178),  has  nearly  twice  the  criminality,  0.20, 
almost  the  same  as  the  District  of  Columbia,  0.21,  which  has  a 
moderate  degree  of  wealth  ($112),  as  has  also  Wyoming,  which, 
however,  shows  nearly  twice  the  criminality,  0.35.  Some  poor 
states  like  Dakota  ($30  per  capita),  Alabama  ($19),  and  New 
Mexico  ($19),  give  the  lowest  criminal  statistics,  from  0.04  to 
0.03;  but  here  we  encounter  a  contradiction,  for  Delaware, 
with  a  criminality  figure  of  only  0.05,  has  a  moderate  amount 
of  wealth  ($82).  We  have  seen  above  how  in  France  and  Italy 
criminality  in  general  increases,  only  changing  its  character; 
we  have  seen  that  Artena  furnishes  the  maximum  of  crime  for 
Italy,  and  yet  that  there  no  one,  according  to  Sighele,  is  really 
poor,  all  being  small  land-holders,  etc.  This  does  not  prevent 
the  fact  that,  when  a  state  of  barbarism  prevails,  as  in  Corsica, 
crimes  against  persons  increase,  as  simple  thefts  do,  in  the  years 
and  in  the  districts  in  which  there  is  extreme  poverty. 

§  63.  Explanation  "^ 

The  cause  of  all  this  is  only  too  clear.  On  the  one  side  pov- 
erty and  the  lack  of  absolute  necessities  impel  toward  the  theft 
of  indispensable  things  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  individual's 
own  needs. ^  This  is  the  first  cord  binding  poverty  and  assaults 
upon  property.  On  the  other  hand,  poverty  makes  men  im- 
pulsive through  the  cortical  irritation  following  the  abuse  of 
wine  and  alcohol,  that  terrible  poison  to  which  so  many  of  the 
poor  resort  to  still  the  pangs  of  hunger.  Account  must  be  taken 
also  of  the  degeneration  produced  by  scurvy,  scrofula,  anemia, 
and  alcoholism  in  the  parents,  which  often  transforms  itself 
into  epilepsy  and  moral  insanity.  Poverty  also  drives  men  to 
commit  brutal  eliminations  of  individuals  who  are  an  unwelcome 
burden  upon  the  family,  recalling  the  parricides  and  infanti- 
cides committed  by  savages  under  similar  circumstances.  Pov- 
erty is  indirectly  a  cause  of  sexual  crimes,  on  account  of  the 
difficulty  which  the  poor  have  of  obtaining  satisfaction  through 
prostitution;  on  account  of  precocious  promiscuity  in  factories 
and  mines;  and  also  because  of  the  frequency  of  infantilism  or 

1  Mayr,  "Die  Gesetzmassigkeit  in  Gesellschaftleben,"  Miinchen,  1877; 
Fomasari,  op.  dt. 


134  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§63 

feminism  among  the  boys.^  On  the  other  hand,  when  a  slight 
temptation  toward  evil  is  presented  to  an  individual  in  com- 
fortable circumstances,  he  is  rendered  physically  and  morally 
stronger  by  sufficient  nutrition  and  a  sounder  moral  training, 
and  is  less  pressed  by  need,  so  that  while  he  feels  the  impulsion 
to  do  evil,  he  can  more  easily  resist  it. 

But  wealth,  in  its  turn,  is  a  source  of  degeneration  from  other 
causes,  such  as  syphilis,  exhaustion,  etc.  It  drives  men  to 
crime  through  vanity,  in  order  to  surpass  others,  and  from  a 
fatal  ambition  to  cut  a  figure  in  the  world,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  one  of  the  greatest  causes  of  crimes  against  property. 
Also,  as  Fornasari  has  very  truly  remarked,  where  wealth  is 
absolutely  the  greatest  it  is  always  accumulated  in  the  hands 
of  a  few,  so  that  at  the  same  time  there  is  alwaj^s  great  poverty, 
more  keenly  felt  because  of  the  contrast.  This  favors  the  ten- 
dency toward  crime  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  furnishes 
better  opportunities  for  it.  Besides,  it  should  be  noted  ^  that 
where  wealth  is  least,  the  crowding  in  of  population  is  least, 
especially  of  dangerous  indi\"iduals,  who  gather  in  the  richer 
districts  to  carry  on  their  criminal  practices  more  easily,  as,  for 
example,  in  France,  at  Cette. 

If  it  is  true,  on  the  other  hand,  that  urgent  need  drives  the 
poor  to  wrongdoing,  it  is  only  to  a  very  limited  number  of 
crimes,  although  these  are  the  more  violent  ones;  while  the 
artificial  wants  of  the  rich,  although  less  urgent,  are  more  nu- 
merous, and  the  kinds  of  crime  among  them  are  infinitely  more 
numerous  also,  as  well  as  the  means  of  escaping  punishment, 
encouraged  by  the  example  of  persons  high  in  politics.  Thus 
we  see,  in  Italy,  ministers  guilty  of  crimes  against  the  public 
who  remain  in  power,  in  spite  of  the  discovery  of  their  crime, 
and  even  use  it  as  a  means  of  fortifying  their  position.  It  is 
only  in  France  and  England  that  the  people  refuse  to  be  gov- 
erned by  criminals. 

As  for  sexual  and  alcoholic  crimes,  the  first  satisfaction  made 
possible  by  wealth  never  sufficiently  appeases  the  blase,  but 

'  See  my  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 

„*  ^.^?"^'  "^^  Sostitutivi  Pcnali,"  in  Arch,  di  Psich.,  I,  p.  88;  "Studi 
Bulla  Cnmmahta  in  Francia,"  in  "AnnaU  di  Stati,"  s.  2a,  v.  XXI,  p.  183; 
Fomaaan,  op.  cit. 


§64] 


INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION 


135 


drives  them  on  to  seek  new  excitements,  such  as  rapes  upon 
children,^  sodomy,  the  misuse  of  morphine,  cocaine,  etc.  Too 
great  wealth,  then,  instead  of  being  a  preventive,  is  often  a 
spur  to  new  crimes. 

"There  are  many,"  says  Joly,  "who  have  nothing  and  want 
nothing,  and  many  who  have  too  much  and  are  always  ambitious 
to  possess  more;  and  besides,  just  as  in  war  killing  en  masse 
and  at  long  range  seems  remote  from  the  idea  of  homicide,  so, 
in  great  cities,  to  ruin  at  a  distance  by  fraud  or  bankruptcy 
an  enormous  number  of  people,  does  not  seem  reaUy  a  crime, 
even  to  many  timid  people." 

The  born  criminal  finds,  on  the  whole,  more  opportunities 
for  crime  in  wealth  than  in  poverty,  but  the  case  is  still  worse 
with  the  occasional  criminal.^  It  is  only  necessary  to  study  the 
physiognomy  of  Baihaut,  De  Z ,  Tanlongo,  etc.,  to  be  con- 
vinced that  these  were  not  congenital  criminals,  and,  without 
politics,  would  never  have  become  criminals. 

§  64.  The  Preponderance  of  Poor  Criminals 

But  why,  some  one  may  object,  are  those  convicted  almost 
always  poor?  We  see,  for  example,  in  the  "Statistica  Penale" 
for  1889,  that  100  Italians  indicted,  of  whom  it  was  possible  to 
know  the  economic  condition,  were  divided  as  follows  in  the 
years  given: 


1887 

1888 

1889 

Indigent 

Having  only  the  necessaries  of 
life 

56.34 

29.99 

11.54 

2.13 

57.45 

30.77 
9.98 
1.80 

56.00 
32.15 

Fairiy  comfortable 

Well-to-do  or  rich 

10.13 
1.72 

1  See  above.  While  educated  persons  furnish  5%  to  6%  of  all  criminals, 
they  furnish  12%  of  those  guilty  of  rapes  upon  children;  that  is  to  say, 
while  there  is  one  criminal  in  twenty  belonging  to  the  hberal  professions, 
in  these  crimes  there  is  one  in  eight  (Starkenburg,  "Daa  Sexuelle  Elend 
der  Gebildeten,"  1895). 

*  Criminel  par  occasion  (elsewhere  d' occasion).  Lombroso  uses  this  ex- 
pression usually  to  indicate  one  who  is  a  criminal  by  force  of  external  cir- 
cumstances, as  distinct  from  the  bom  criminal;  but  he  sometimes  employs 
it  for  the  man  of  one  crime  as  distinguished  from  the  habitual  criminal. 
—  Transl- 


136  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§64 

These  figures  agree  with  those  published  by  Guillaume,  Stevens, 
and  Marro,^  in  showing  us  an  enormous  disproportion  of  crimes 
among  the  poor. 

But  before  we  let  ourselves  be  led  away  by  these  figures, 
which  appear  to  be  flatly  contrary  to  our  conclusions  as  to  the 
evil  effect  of  wealth,  it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  the  con- 
viction of  rich  men  is  very  rare,  and  that,  when  they  violate 
the  laws,  as  Marro  very  truly  says,  they  are  not  put  into  prison 
so  easily  as  the  poor.  The  rich  man  has  in  his  favor  the  influ- 
ence of  his  fortune,  his  family,  his  social  relations,  and  his 
intelligence.  This  is  often  enough  to  save  him  from  prison, 
and  always  gives  him  able  defenders.  In  the  private  asylums, 
which  are  used  only  by  the  rich,  the  morally  insane  are  very 
numerous,  though  there  are  but  few  in  the  public  asylums  and 
the  prisons;  which  means  that  wealth  helps  to  clear  up  the 
pathology  of  the  born  criminal,  while  poverty  obscures  it. 
Fiu*ther,  in  the  contest  between  classes,  the  courts  are  used  as 
a  means  of  dominating  the  poor,  who  are  already,  a  priori,  con- 
victed as  such.  The  upper  classes  are  accustomed  to  say, 
"Poor  as  a  thief,"  and,  alas!  what  is  worse,  to  turn  the  proverb 
around. 

"If,"  as  Colajanni  says,  "some  of  the  delinquencies  of  the 
poor  remain  concealed,  whether  because  the  moral  sense  is 
deficient  among  them  and  for  this  reason  no  information  is 
laid,  as  in  the  case  of  sexual  crimes,  or  because  the  offenses  take 
place  under  such  conditions  that  they  are  not  discovered,  as  in 
the  case  of  field  thefts,  does  it  always  happen  that  all  the  crimes 
of  the  rich  come  to  light?  Is  there  an  army  corps  set  aside  to 
discover  the  crimes  of  the  rich,  as  there  is  for  the  offences  com- 
mitted in  the  fields  and  forests?" 

And  have  there  not  been  cases  of  parliamentary  and  political 
immunity,  flagrant  or  secret,  —  a  kind  of  right  of  asylum, 
enormously  extended  to  take  in  all  delinquents  having  political 
power,  ministers,  deputies,  great  electors,  journalists?    A  great 

»T*  Gumaume,  "fitat  de  la  Question  des  Prisons  en  Sufede":  Stevens, 
quSti "  Krin  1887^^  ^°  Belgique";    Marro,  "I  Caratteri  dei  Delin- 


§64]         INFLUENCE  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION  137 

poet  has  told  us  that  rags  allow  crime  to  be  seen  at  once  through 
their  rents,  while  gold  conceals  and  defends  it.^ 

To  sum  up:  the  economic  factor  has  a  great  influence  upon 
crime,  not,  however,  that  poverty  is  the  principal  cause  of  it, 
for  excessive  wealth,  or  money  too  quickly  acquired,  plays  a 
large  part  as  well;  and  poverty  and  wealth  are  frequently 
neutralized  by  the  effect  of  race  and  cUmate. 

1  "Through  tatter 'd  clothes  small  vices  do  appear; 

Robes  and  furred  gowns  hide  all.     Plate  sin  with  gold, 
And  the  strong  lance  of  justice  hurtless  breaks; 
Arm  it  in  rags,  a  pigmy's  straw  does  pierce  it." 

(Shakespeare,  "King  Lear,"  Act  iv,  Sc.  vi.) 


CHAPTER  X 

BELIGION 
§65. 

THE  influence  of  religion  also  is  complex,  even  more  so  than 
that  of  civilization  or  wealth.  We  have  seen  that  there 
are  criminals  who  are  very  religious  (especially  in  the  country, 
and  in  relatively  unciviUzed  localities),  and  also  criminals  who 
are  irreUgious,  even  atheistic.^  We  have  seen  that  among  church- 
goers, criminals  and  honest  men  are  almost  equally  numerous,^ 
and  often  the  criminals  are  in  the  majority .^  Of  700  criminals 
examined  by  Ferri  1  alone  was  an  atheist,  1  was  indifferent, 
and  7  were  devout  and  even  found  in  religion  an  excuse  for  their 
crime.  One  of  these  said,  "  It  is  God  who  gives  us  the  instinct  to 
steal";  another,  "Crimes  are  not  sins,  for  the  priests  also  com- 
mit them";  and  still  another,  "I  have  sinned,  it  is  true,  but  the 
priest  pardoned  me  at  confession,"  The  greater  number  were 
as  careless  of  punishment  in  the  hereafter  as  they  were  of  human 
punishment.  Thus  a  murderer,  when  Ferri  asked  him  whether 
he  did  not  fear  the  wrath  of  God,  answered,  "But  God  has  never 
punished  me  yet."  "But  you  will  go  to  heU."  "Oh,  I  may 
go,  and  I  may  not."  And  a  third:  "We  shall  see  whether  we 
shall  be  punished,  when  we  are  dead." 

If  we  rely  upon  the  somewhat  limited  statistics  available  in 
this  matter,  we  shall  find  that  there  are  fewer  criminals  where 
atheists  abound,  than  where,  under  equal  conditions,  either 
Catholics  or  Protestants  dominate.  This  fact  may  proceed 
from  their  greater  degree  of  education,  the  more  so  as  in  Europe 

»  See  my  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 

*  Maxime  Du  Camp,  while  examining  33  convicts  during  mass  noted 
that  3  were  reading  the  mass,  1  sat  with  head  covered  and  eyes  fixed  upon 
the  altar,  1  knelt,  1  pretended  to  be  reading  the  mass  but  really  read  the 
"Magasin  Pittoresque,"  1  was  weeping,  while  26  sat  at  table  reading  or 
working. 

*  See  my  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 


igWin: 


§  65]  RELIGION  139 

atheists  are  especially  numerous  among  the  more  highly  edu- 
cated. A  certain  amount  of  energy  is  necessary  to  separate 
oneself  in  religious  feeling  from  the  general  and  conventional 
modes  of  thought.  The  same  power  of  inhibition  which  enables 
one  to  resist  the  imitative  instinct  makes  it  possible  also  to  re- 
sist the  impulse  toward  crime. 

Joly,  who  nevertheless  insists  upon  the  ennobling  influence 
of  the  external  practices  of  religion,  cites  Normandy  as  an  ex- 
ample of  a  district  where  the  respect  for  ritual  religion  is  very 
great,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  there  is  a  high  degree  of  crim- 
inality. This  is  expressed  in  a  proverb  which  he  quotes  as  being 
in  use  among  the  inhabitants  of  Lozere:  "Lozerian,  rosary  in 
one  hand  and  knife  in  the  other."  He  further  illustrates  his 
point  by  the  following  occurrence,  which  happened  in  Ardeche: 
Two  groups  of  men  had  fallen  into  a  quarrel  at  the  market,  and 
had  already  raised  their  great  iron-shod  sticks  when  sud- 
y  the  Angelus  sounded.  The  two  hostile  parties  immediately 
sred  their  clubs,  uncovered,  made  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and 
ted  the  Angelus.  .  .  .  But  the  prayer  finished,  they  seized 
ir  weapons  again,  and  the  fight  began  anew.  Joly  observes 
t  although  in  France  the  girls  are  more  carefully  instructed 
religion  than  the  boys,  nevertheless  the  number  of  female 
enile  offenders  has  not  diminished;  and  if,  on  the  whole, 
re  is  a  decrease  in  juvenile  crime,  this  is  among  the  boys.  Re- 
clus  ^  writes  that  there  is  a  chapel  at  Treynier  where  they  go  to 
invoke  the  "Madonna  of  Hatred"  to  procure  the  death  of  some 
detested  person.  In  speaking  of  Sicily  the  advocate  Locatelli 
says: 

"It  is  impossible  to  conceive  the  corrupting  influence  which 
must  have  been  exercised  upon  the  poorer  classes  by  these 
thousands  of  priests,  possessed  of  wealth  and  influence,  idle, 
but  endowed  with  the  spirit  and  sensuality  of  all  southern 
people.  For  them  seduction,  adultery,  and  incest  itself  were 
pardonable  sins.  The  murderer  who  revealed  his  crime  and 
excused  himself  on  the  ground  that  he  had  been  provoked  or 
injured,  or  even  merely  that  he  was  in  great  poverty,  was  not 
only  absolved,  but  also  released  from  the  necessity  of  satisfying 

1  "Geographie  Universelle,"  II,  618. 


CHAPTER  X 

BEUGION 

§65. 

THE  influence  of  religion  also  is  complex,  even  more  so  than 
that  of  civilization  or  wealth.    We  have  seen  that  there 
are  criminals  who  are  very  rehgious  (especially  in  the  country, 
and  in  relatively  uncivilized  localities),  and  also  criminals  who 
are  irreUgious,  even  atheistic.^   We  have  seen  that  among  church- 
goers, criminals  and  honest  men  are  almost  equally  numerous,^ 
and  often  the  criminals  are  in  the  majority .^    Of  700  criminals 
examined  by  Ferri  1  alone  was  an  atheist,  1  was  indifferent, 
and  7  were  devout  and  even  found  in  religion  an  excuse  for  ^^fhj>f>. 
crime.   One  of  these  said,  "  It  is  God  who  gives  us  the  instinc  f     "^ ^'.  ^' 
steal";  another,  "Crimes  are  not  sins,  for  the  priests  also  C( 
mit  them";  and  still  another,  "I  have  sinned,  it  is  true,  but 
priest  pardoned  me  at  confession."    The  greater  number  ^ 
as  careless  of  punishment  in  the  hereafter  as  they  were  of  hun  aais 

punishment.    Thus  a  murderer,  when  Ferri  asked  him  whet         <noH  c 
he  did  not  fear  the  wrath  of  God,  answered,  "  But  God  has  ne         UHli 
punished  me  yet."    "But  you  will  go  to  hell."     "Oh,  I  may 
go,  and  I  may  not."    And  a  third:  "We  shall  see  whether  we 
shall  be  punished,  when  we  are  dead." 

If  we  rely  upon  the  somewhat  limited  statistics  available  in 
this  matter,  we  shall  find  that  there  are  fewer  criminals  where 
atheists  abound,  than  where,  under  equal  conditions,  either 
Catholics  or  Protestants  dominate.  This  fact  may  proceed 
from  their  greater  degree  of  education,  the  more  so  as  in  Europe 

»  See  my  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 

*  Maxime  Du  Camp,  while  examining  33  convicts  during  mass  noted 
that  3  were  reading  the  mass,  1  sat  with  head  covered  and  eyes  fixed  upon 
the  altar,  1  knelt,  1  pretended  to  be  reading  the  mass  but  really  read  the 
"Magasin  Pittoresque,"  1  was  weeping,  while  26  sat  at  table  reading  or 
working. 

*  See  my  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 


§  65]  RELIGION  139 

atheists  are  especially  numerous  among  the  more  highly  edu- 
cated. A  certain  amount  of  energy  is  necessary  to  separate 
oneself  in  religious  feeling  from  the  general  and  conventional 
modes  of  thought.  The  same  power  of  inhibition  which  enables 
one  to  resist  the  imitative  instinct  makes  it  possible  also  to  re- 
sist the  impulse  toward  crime. 

Joly,  who  nevertheless  insists  upon  the  ennobling  influence 
of  the  external  practices  of  religion,  cites  Normandy  as  an  ex- 
ample of  a  district  where  the  respect  for  ritual  religion  is  very 
great,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  there  is  a  high  degree  of  crim- 
inality. This  is  expressed  in  a  proverb  which  he  quotes  as  being 
in  use  among  the  inhabitants  of  Lozere:  "Lozerian,  rosary  in 
one  hand  and  knife  in  the  other."  He  further  illustrates  his 
point  by  the  following  occurrence,  which  happened  in  Ardeche: 
Two  groups  of  men  had  fallen  into  a  quarrel  at  the  market,  and 
they  had  already  raised  their  great  iron-shod  sticks  when  sud- 
denly the  Angelus  sounded.  The  two  hostile  parties  immediately 
lowered  their  clubs,  uncovered,  made  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and 
recited  the  Angelus.  .  .  .  But  the  prayer  finished,  they  seized 
their  weapons  again,  and  the  fight  began  anew.  Joly  observes 
that  although  in  France  the  girls  are  more  carefully  instructed 
in  religion  than  the  boys,  nevertheless  the  number  of  female 
juvenile  offenders  has  not  diminished;  and  if,  on  the  whole, 
there  is  a  decrease  in  juvenile  crime,  this  is  among  the  boys.  Re- 
clus  ^  writes  that  there  is  a  chapel  at  Treynier  where  they  go  to 
invoke  the  "  Madonna  of  Hatred  "  to  procure  the  death  of  some 
detested  person.  In  speaking  of  Sicily  the  advocate  Locatelli 
says: 

"It  is  impossible  to  conceive  the  corrupting  influence  which 
must  have  been  exercised  upon  the  poorer  classes  by  these 
thousands  of  priests,  possessed  of  wealth  and  influence,  idle, 
but  endowed  with  the  spirit  and  sensuality  of  all  southern 
people.  For  them  seduction,  adultery,  and  incest  itself  were 
pardonable  sins.  The  murderer  who  revealed  his  crime  and 
excused  himself  on  the  ground  that  he  had  been  provoked  or 
injured,  or  even  merely  that  he  was  in  great  poverty,  was  not 
only  absolved,  but  also  released  from  the  necessity  of  satisfying 

»  "Geographie  Universelle,"  II,  618. 


140  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§65 

the  secular  court,  even  where  an  innocent  man  had  been  arrested 
in  his  place.  The  witness  who  hid  the  truth  from  the  judge 
in  order  to  escape  danger,  or  to  avoid  compromising  a  neighbor, 
was  equally  certain  of  reconciliation  with  God  through  the 
mediation  of  the  confessor.  The  rich  man,  who  secluded  his 
own  women  with  a  truly  Turkish  jealousy,  was  treated  with 
consideration  if  he  attempted  the  honor  of  a  daughter  of  the 
people.  From  smaller  transgressions,  such  as  forgery,  a  man 
could  purge  his  conscience  by  paying  the  Church  32  francs  and 
80  centimes." 

It  is  still  only  a  few  centuries  since  the  great  vicars-general  of 
the  richest  cities  granted  permission  to  commit  adultery  for  a 
whole  year.  In  other  cities  the  right  to  commit  fornication  with 
impunity  for  a  lifetime  could  be  obtained  by  the  payment  of  a 
quarter  cask  of  wine  to  the  bishop's  officer,  who  drew  this  privi- 
lege from  the  canon  De  Dilectissimis,  in  the  decretals  of  the 
pope.  One  man  even  had  the  audacity  to  present  to  Pope 
Sixtus  IV  a  petition  for  permission  to  commit  this  sin  during 
the  dog-days.  In  our  own  time  there  was  a  papal  bull  in  force 
in  Palermo  until  annulled  in  1868,  by  which  there  was  granted 
dispensation  from  the  necessity  of  repaying  unlawfully  acquired 
money,  by  whatever  crime  obtained,  upon  payment  of  certain 
sums  to  the  Church.^  Dupin  de  Saint-Andre  republished  in 
1879  "Les  Taxes  de  la  Penitencerie  Apostolique,"  ^  in  which 
crimes  are  taxed  according  to  tariffs  established  by  Pope  John 
XII  and  Pope  Leo  X.  Thus,  a  layman  who  had  killed  a 
priest  was  absolved  upon  payment  of  7  gros,  and  only  5  if  he 
had  killed  another  layman. 

"If  an  ecclesiastic  committed  fornication  with  a  nun,  whether 
in  or  out  of  the  monastery,  or  with  one  of  his  cousins  or  god- 
daughters, he  was  absolved  only  upon  payment  of  67  francs,  11 
sous.  If  the  act  was  against  nature,  219  francs  and  14  sous. 
A  nun  who  had  committed  fornication  with  a  number  of  men, 
whether  in  or  out  of  the  convent,  131  francs,  14  sous.  Adultery 
was  absolved  for  87  francs  and  3  sous.  A  layman  might  be 
absolved  for  adultery,  however,  for  only  4  francs;  but  for  adul- 

T.  \-  HV°,^^"L^"^1  ^°  ^^^  second  edition  of  my  "Incremento  del  Delitto  in 
Italia,"  1879,  Tunn. 

*  Published  by  Toussain  Denis  in  1520  and  in  Rome  in  1741. 


§  65]  RELIGION  141 

tery  and  incest,  for  10  francs.     Under  John  XII  incest  with 
sisters  or  mother  cost  40  sous."  ^ 

Who  does  not  know  the  maxims  of  the  Jesuits  of  the  last  cen- 
tury? Lacroix,  for  example,  says:  "Although  the  natural  law 
forbids  lying  and  murder,  under  certain  circumstances  they  are 
permitted."  So  Buzenbraun  declares:  "An  extremely  poor 
man  may  take  what  he  needs,  and  may  even  kill  anyone  who 
tries  to  prevent  him  from  taking  what  is  necessary."  In  the 
same  way  Maiorca  authorized  regicide;  and  Pere  Longuet  says: 
"A  man  does  not  sin  against  justice,  and  is  not  obliged  to  return 
the  money  that  has  been  given  him  for  killing  or  wounding  " 
(op.  cit.). 

However,  one  thing  seems  clear  to  me,  namely,  that  the 
younger  religions  are,  the  greater  is  their  moral  power,  because 
the  letter  has  not  yet  encroached  upon  the  spirit,  because  the 
enthusiasm  for  new  ideas  occupies  the  mind  and  draws  it  away 
from  crime,  and,  finally,  because,  whatever  be  its  origin,  the 
organism  is  then  more  free  from  symbols  and  formulas  that 
clog  its  activity.  This  fact  has  been  observed  with  us  with 
regard  to  Savonarola  and  the  Vaudois,  and  may  still  be  noticed 
among  the  negroes  in  the  United  States,  who,  when  they  are 
converted  to  Methodism,  renounce  their  idleness  and  practice  of 
infanticide,  so  that  in  the  districts  where  conversions  abound  the 
population  increases  noticeably.  And  it  is  a  curious  phenome- 
non that  even  the  new  religious  sects  created  by  pure  paranoiacs, 
like  the  Lazarettists  in  Italy  and  the  Quakers  in  England, 
brought  about  an  immediate  diminution  in  crime.  Even  the 
Skopzi,  who  castrate  one  another  as  a  part  of  their  religion,  are 
renowned  for  their  honesty.  In  northern  Russia  the  Bialoriztzi  ^ 
do  not  drink  alcohol  nor  smoke:  they  wear  white  clothing  woven 
by  their  own  hands,  and  lead  a  virtuous  life.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  Soutasevtzy,  who  reject  priests,  images,  and  military 
service,  and  as  a  consequence  often  suffer  martyrdom.  The 
"Sons  of  God"  believe  that  each  one  is  his  own  god,  and  that  it 
is  suflScient  to  address  prayers  to  any  neighbor.     They  unite 

^  Virginio  Polidoro,  "Delia  Invenzione  delle  Cose":  Bianchi-Giovini, 
f'Storia  dei  Papi,"  Vol.  XXI,  1864. 
2  "Revue  des  Revues,"  Oct.  15,  1895. 


142  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  65 

in  wild  dances  in  honor  of  God,  continuing  until  they  fall  ex- 
hausted to  the  floor.  And  with  all  this  they  are  very  honest. 
The  Veriginski  or  Tolstoians  drink  only  tea,  and  allow  them- 
selves to  be  maltreated  without  resistance,  saying  nothing 
more  than  "God  help  me,"  until  their  persecutor  falls  down 
in  admiration  at  their  feet.  These  new  sects  are  veritable  epi- 
demics of  virtue  and  saintliness. 

It  is  a  strange  fact  that  the  South-Russian  sects,  which  are 
known  for  their  sanguinary  character  (doubtless  the  effect  of 
the  hot  climate,  which,  as  we  know,  produces  an  inclination  to 
homicide),  nevertheless  inspire  a  high  morality.  Thus  the 
Doukobors  kill  all  the  children  abnormal  in  body  or  mind,  out  of 
respect  for  the  divine  spirit  that  ought  to  dwell  in  them.  One  of 
their  chiefs,  Kapoustine,  had  all  traitors  to  the  dogmas  of  the 
sect  buried  ahve,  and  in  an  action  that  was  brought  against  him 
it  was  found  that  he  had  committed  twenty -one  religious  homi- 
cides. All  this  appears  to  us  more  than  criminal.  Yet  this  sect 
is  opposed  to  war,  and  preaches  that  the  Czar  reigns  only  over 
rogues  and  criminals,  while  honest  men,  the  true  Doukobors, 
have  nothing  to  do  with  his  laws  or  his  authority.  It  is  from 
this  sect  that  the  Molokani  arose,  drinkers  of  milk,  enemies  of 
priests,  ornaments,  and  useless  ceremonies.  All  educated  and 
very  honest,  these  people  help  one  another,  have  no  poor,  and, 
to  whatever  place  they  are  deported,  turn  the  most  inhospitable 
locality  into  a  garden.  The  Mormons  of  America,  also,  were 
famous  for  their  industry  and  probity. 

On  the  whole,  the  contradiction  of  the  influence  of  religion, 
now  great  and  now  totally  lacking,  disappears  when  one  grasps 
the  significance  of  the  facts.  Religion  is  useful  when  it  is  based 
absolutely  upon  morals  and  abandons  all  rites  and  formularies. 
This  is  a  condition  that  can  be  realized  only  in  the  new  religions; 
because  while  all  in  the  beginning  are  moral,  afterwards,  little 
by  little,  they  become  crystalUzed,  and  ritual  practices  submerge 
the  moral  prmciple,  which  is  less  easily  conceived  and  retained  by 
the  crowd.  All  members  of  new  sects  are  men  of  one  idea,  which 
protects  them,  like  a  vaccine,  agamst  ignoble  passions.  It  is 
for  similar  reasons  that  certain  Protestant  cities  which  have  a 
more  ardent  religious  fervor,  like  Geneva  and  London,  are  the 


§65]  RELIGION  143 

only  ones  where  crime  is  decreasing,  notwithstanding  the  prog- 
ress of  civiHzation  and  the  dense  population  (London  alone 
having  more  people  than  an  entire  ItaUan  province).  Here  it  is 
not  inhibition  that  comes  into  play,  but  a  great  religious  pas- 
sion, which  neutralizes  ignoble  instincts,  and  combats  vices 
and  immoral  tendencies  with  such  vigor  that  it  ends  by 
conquering  them. 

"In  England  religion  recruits  thousands  of  fanatics,  who, 
under  the  most  diverse  names  and  theories,  work  themselves 
into  a  fever  over  saving  men's  souls.  They  extend  their  ac- 
tivity over  an  immense  field,  organizing  services,  preachings, 
processions,  pious  works,  etc. 

"In  the  Latin  countries,  on  the  other  hand,  where  the  Cath- 
olic Church  extends  its  domination,  religion  can  only  rarely 
be  a  preservative  from  vice;  and  this  not  so  much  because  of 
the  irreligion  or  scepticism  of  the  people  (a  smaller  factor  than 
is  generally  believed,  even  in  the  country  of  Voltaire),  but 
because  of  the  very  organization  of  the  Church  itself.  The 
Catholic  Church  is  a  great  disciplinary  institution;  it  is  almost 
an  army,  founded  on  obedience  and  subordination,  in  which 
each  man  has  his  place  and  prescribed  course  of  action,  laid  down 
by  immutable  laws.  Active,  fanatical  natures,  like  Dr.  Bar- 
nardo,  who  are  naturally  independent  and  inclined  to  revolt, 
find  themselves  ill  at  ease  in  the  Church,  except  in  missions, 
which  is  the  only  department  that  grants  individual  autonomy. 
On  the  other  hand  they  find  themselves  much  at  home  in  the 
Protestant  sects,  which  are  as  free  and  autonomous  as  little 
clans  or  barbarous  tribes,  as  is  the  case  with  the  Baptists,  for 
example,  or  the  Salvation  Army.^ 

"Further,  fanaticism  finds  in  the  Germanic  nations,  and 
especially  in  England,  a  great  field  for  its  development  in  phi- 
lanthropy, something  which  is  almost  always  lacking  in  Latin 
countries. 

"London  is  the  principal  city  of  these  fanatics  of  philanthropy. 
Here  are  men  and  women  of  all  classes  and  social  positions,  rich 
and  poor,  educated  or  ignorant,  sane  or  mad,  who  have  taken 
it  into  their  heads  to  cure  the  diseases  of  society  or  to  extirpate 
some  special  form  of  misfortune  or  sorrow.  One  has  taken  to 
heart  the  cruelties  practiced  upon  children  by  their  parents; 
another  is  concerned  for  blind  old  men;  a  third  is  concerned 
for  the  insane  maltreated  in  the  asylums;  a  fourth  is  interested 
in  liberated  convicts.     And  all  work  without  ceasing,  publish 

^  Ferrero,  in  the  "Riforma  Sociale,"  1895. 


144  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  65 

journals,  organize  societies,  make  speeches,  and  sometimes 
succeed  in  bringing  about  great  social  epidemics  and  move- 
ments of  popular  opinion  intense  enough  to  result  in  some  im- 
portant humanitarian  reform.  This  kind  of  activity  may  be 
an  excellent  substitute  for  political  fanaticism,  which  results 
in  dynamite  outrages. 

"But  in  the  Latin  countries  such  agitations  would  come  to 
nothing.  The  tradition  of  the  administration  of  charity  by  the 
public  authorities  or  by  the  church  is  so  deeply  rooted  that  no 
one  wants  to  concern  himself  personally  with  social  miseries. 
If  children  are  often  maltreated  in  the  great  cities  and  the 
papers  protest  vigorously  and  stir  up  public  opinion  a  little, 
public  opinion  will  simply  demand  the  enactment  of  a  law  by 
the  state  and  then  rest  content,  though  the  law  will  never  be 
enforced.  No  one  would  think  of  founding  private  societies, 
such  as  they  have  in  England,  which  watch  cruel  parents  and 
at  times  come  and  snatch  their  little  victims  out  of  their 
hands." 

This  is  natural.  In  the  religions  which  have  survived  for 
many  centuries  the  moral  element  disappears,  because  it  con- 
forms less  to  the  sentiment  of  the  masses,  while  only  the  cere- 
monial remains  and  superabounds.  Of  seventy-three  principal 
articles  of  the  Order  of  St.  Benedict,  only  nine  pertain  to  morals. 
In  the  Order  of  St.  Columbanus  one  year  of  penance  is  decreed 
for  anyone  who  loses  a  piece  of  the  host  (sacred  bread),  and  six 
months  for  one  who  lets  two  pieces  be  eaten  at  once. 

Theonly  religions,  then,  which  can  prevent  crime  are  those  that 
are  fanatical,  passionately  moral,  or  just  arising.  The  others 
are  no  more  effective  than  atheism,  and  perhaps  less  so. 


CHAPTER  XI 

EDUCATION ILLEGITIMATE   CHILDREN  —  ORPHANS 

§  66.   niegitimate  Children 

THE  influence  of  education  upon  crime  is  shown  indirectly 
by  the  continually  increasing  proportion  of  criminals  of 
illegitimate  birth  in  the  most  civilized  countries.  In  Prussia 
the  illegitimate  delinquents,  who  constitute  3%  of  the  whole  in 
1859,  rose  by  1873  to  6%,  and  the  women  from  5%  to  8%.  In 
France,  of  the  800  minors  arrested  in  1864,  60%  were  orphaned 
or  illegitimate,  and  38%  were  the  sons  of  prostitutes  or  delin- 
quents. In  Austria  in  1873  10%  of  all  the  male  criminals  were 
illegitimate,  and  21%  of  all  the  female.^  In  Hamburg  30%  of 
the  prostitutes  were  illegitimate  (Hugel),  and  in  Paris  a  fifth  of 
the  Parisian  born  prostitutes  and  an  eighth  of  the  country 
women.2  jn  i}^q  prisons  of  Wiirtemberg  in  1884-85  14.3%  of 
the  inmates  were  illegitimate;  in  1885-86,  16.7%;  in  1886- 
87, 15.3%;  while  the  illegitimate  individuals  in  the  non-criminal 
population  rose  to  8.76%.  Sichert  ^  found  among  3181  whom 
he  examined  in  these  same  prisons,  27%  of  illegitimate  crimi- 
nals, or  nearly  double  the  other  figures.  These  were  divided 
as  follows: 

Percentage  of  illegitimacy 

Thieves 32.4 

Pickpockets 32.1 

Sexual  criminals      21.0 

Perjurers 13.0 

Incendiaries 12.9 

Of  the  habitual  criminals  he  found  30.6%  illegitimate,  and 
17.5%,  a  little  more  than  half  as  many,  of  the  accidental  crimi- 
nals.    He  found  also  the  following: 

^  Oettingen,  op.  cit. 

*  "Parent-du-Chatelet,"  op.  cit. 

3  Liszt,  "Archiv.  f.  Strafrecht,"  1890. 


146  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§66 

Averse  to  work        Beggars      Vagrants 

Of  1248  legitimate  thieves  there  were     52.0%  32%  42% 

Of  600  illegitimate  thieves  there  were      52.3%  39%  49% 

In  Italy  the  statistics  of  the  prisons  show  3%  to  5%  among  the 
male  minors,  and  7%  to  9%  among  the  females.^  We  may  add 
that  36%  of  the  recidivists  in  Italy  are  either  natural  children 
or  foundlings.  To  comprehend  the  greater  importance  of  these 
figures  it  is  necessary  to  recall  that  a  great  proportion  of  all 
illegitimate  children  —  at  least  60%,  and  often  80%  ^  —  die  in 
the  first  eighteen  months  or  two  years.  Marbeau  can  then  say 
without  exaggeration  that  of  four  foundlings  three  die  before 
they  are  twelve  years  old,  and  the  fourth  is  doomed  to  a  life 
of  crime.  To  get  at  the  significance  of  these  figures  more  exactly 
I  have  made  researches  with  regard  to  3787  entries,  nearly  all 
adults,  in  the  asylums  of  Imola  (Dr.  LoUi),  of  Padua  (Prof. 
Tebaldi),  and  of  Pa  via,  and  also  with  regard  to  1059  entries  in 
the  city  hospital  of  Pa  via  in  1871,  and  I  found  that  there  were 
1.5%  of  foundlings  in  the  asylums  and  2.7%  in  the  city  hospital; 
and  nevertheless  the  mortality  is  less  among  the  illegitimate  in 
Pa  via  than  in  many  other  places.^  Age  and  conditions  being, 
equal,  foundlings  furnish  20  times  more  delinquents  than  insane 
persons.  We  may  aflSrm,  then,  with  the  greatest  certainty,  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  foundlings  that  escape  death  abandon 
themselves  to  crime.  Doubtless  heredity  enters  largely  into  this 
result.  Most  of  these  children  are  the  fruit  of  sin;  they  have  no 
name  to  uphold,  no  rein  to  stop  them  when  spurred  by  passion, 
no  mother  who,  by  her  assiduous  care,  affection,  and  sacrifices, 
aids  in  developing  noble  instincts  and  suppressing  tendencies 
to  evil;  they  find  an  honest  living  hard  to  get  and  are  inevi- 
tably drawn  toward  evil.  If  they  have  no  perverse  tendencies 
they  acquire  them  by  imitation.    On  the  other  hand,  philan- 

»  "Statistica  deUe  Carceri,"  Rome,  1873,  CXXVIII. 

*  Of  1000  foundlings  in  Bordeaux  in  the  course  of  10  years  729  died. 
In  94  years  367,988  infants  entered  the  foundling  asylum,  of  whom  288,554 
died  m  infancy,  that  is  to  say,  79%.  (Angel,  "Vortrag.  ub.  Mortal  der 
Kmder,"  1865.) 

»  25%  in  the  year  after  entrance. 


§67]  EDUCATION  147' 

thropic  institutions,  like  orphan  and  foundling  asylums,  have 
also  an  evil  influence,  for,  as  we  have  seen,  a  multiplicity  of  con- 
tacts always  fosters  criminality. 


§  67.  Orphans 

That  abandonment  and  the  lack  of  education  play  a  great 
part  in  producing  criminality  is  demonstrated  by  the  great  num- 
ber of  orphans  and  step-children  found  in  the  prisons.  In  Italy 
among  the  juvenile  delinquents  in  1871-72  there  were  from  8% 
to  13%  of  step-children.  Brace  tells  that  in  New  York  1542 
orphans  and  504  step-children  were  arrested  for  various  offenses. 
He  adds  that  55%  of  the  criminals  in  the  penitentiaries  were 
without  father  and  mother;  and  60%  of  the  children  arrested 
had  lost  one  parent,  or  their  parents  were  separated.  According 
to  Marbeau,  of  100  juvenile  prisoners  15  had  been  abandoned 
by  their  mothers.  In  Italy  during  ten  years  we  had  an  average 
of  33%  to  35%  of  orphans  among  the  delinquents;  out  of  580 
insane  adults  in  my  clinic  orphans  furnished  47%,  and  the 
number  of  orphans  reached  78%  among  the  1059  entering  the 
hospital  of  Pavia.  But  it  is  certainly  a  still  more  important 
fact  that  we  find  an  average  of  18%  to  20%  of  orphans  among 
the  juvenile  criminals,  for  the  proportion  of  orphans  in  the  gen- 
eral population  is  lower  than  this.  The  same  is  true  of  half- 
orphans,  who  furnish  18%  of  the  general  juvenile  population,  but 
23%  to  30%  of  the  juvenile  delinquents.  The  Italian  statistics 
show  26%  of  the  delinquents  to  be  fatherless  and  23%  to  be 
motherless,  while  among  the  insane  51%  have  lost  their  fathers 
and  10%  their  mothers. 

It  is  certain,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  female  sex  predomi- 
nates among  orphans  who  are  criminals,  and  even  more  so  in  the 
case  of  foundlings.  This  is  true  even  leaving  out  of  account 
prostitution,  which  is  a  sort  of  minor  criminality.  So  Oettingen 
arrives  at  the  strange  result,  that  while  for  each  five  male  delin- 
quents there  is  one  female,  in  the  case  of  foundlings  there  are 
three  females  to  one  male.  This  is,  however,  quite  natural,  for 
a  woman  being  weaker  and  more  passionate  than  a  man,  has 


148  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§68 

more  need  of  the  support  and  restraint  of  the  family  to  keep  her 
in  the  right  way,  from  which  she  is  more  easily  turned  than  a 
man,  on  account  of  the  slippery  path  of  prostitution  that  is 
always  open  to  her.  Here  the  hereditary  influence  is  very  power- 
ful, and  women  who  have  sprung  from  a  sexual  transgression 
are  easily  led  into  the  same  error,  and  from  this  to  graver 
offenses. 

The  great  number  of  foundlings  among  delinquents  explains 
also  the  predominance  of  juvenile  delinquents  in  the  urban  pop- 
ulation (Cardon),  and  gives  us  the  measure  of  the  harm  done  by 
defective  education  and  by  abandonment. 


§  68.  Vicious  Parentage  —  Education 

It  is  entirely  natural  that  evil  education  should  have  a  still 
more  deplorably  criminal  effect  than  even  abandonment.  We 
may  recall  here  the  large  proportion  of  criminals  who  are  sprung 
from  unsound  parents.  Sichart  finds  the  proportion  of  patho- 
logical inheritance  to  be  36%,  while  Marro  makes  it  90%. 
6.7%  have  epileptic  parents,  4.3%  are  descended  from  suicides, 
6.7%  from  insane  persons;  while  in  the  case  of  those  guilty  of 
grave  crimes,  Penta  finds  an  alcoholic  heredity  of  37%,  and 
Marro  of  41%.  How  can  an  unfortunate  child  protect  himself 
from  evil  when  it  is  presented  to  him  in  the  most  attractive 
colors,  or,  worse  still,  when  it  is  imposed  upon  him  by  the  au- 
thority and  example  of  his  parents,  or  those  who  are  charged 
with  his  education?  We  shall  comprehend  the  situation  best 
from  actual  examples:  V.,  a  sister  of  thieves,  was  brought  up 
by  her  parents  as  a  boy.  Clothed  as  a  boy,  she  took  on  a  mas- 
culine air,  and  wielded  her  knife  vigorously.  One  day  while  on 
a  journey  she  stole  a  cloak,  and,  being  arrested,  accused  her 
parents  of  the  theft.  The  Cornu  family  was  composed  of  thieves 
and  murderers,  habituated  to  crime  from  their  tenderest  in- 
fancy. Of  five  brothers  and  sisters  only  one,  the  youngest,  had 
shown  a  strong  aversion  to  crime.  Her  parents  found  a  means 
of  overcoming  her  repugnance,  making  her  carry  the  head  of 
one  of  their  victims  in  her  apron  for  two  leagues.     In  a  little 


§68]  EDUCATION  149 

while  she  was  so  stripped  of  all  remorse  that  she  became  the 
fiercest  of  the  band  and  wanted  to  practice  the  most  horrible 
cruelties  upon  their  victims.  The  murderer  Crocco,  who  at  the 
age  of  three  used  to  hit  his  comrades  with  stones  and  pluck 
birds  alive,  had  often  been  left  by  his  father  entirely  alone  in  the 
forest  as  late  as  his  nineteenth  year,  Fregier  tells  of  the  son  of 
a  thief  who  was  his  father's  pride  because  he  was  able  at  the  age 
of  three  to  take  an  impression  of  a  key  in  wax.  The  wives  of 
assassins,  according  to  Vidocq,  are  more  dangerous  than  their 
husbands,  for  they  accustom  their  children  to  crime,  and  give 
them  a  present  for  every  murder  they  commit. 

We  have  seen,  and  shall  see  still  more  clearly  in  the  next 
chapter,  how  numerous  the  criminals  are  who  have  immoral 
parents  or  families,  in  which  case  vicious  education  and  vicious 
heredity  work  together.  Here  also,  as  in  the  case  of  abandon- 
ment, and  for  the  same  reasons,  namely,  prostitution  and  the 
greater  persistency  of  the  woman  in  crime,  the  number  of 
women  subject  to  these  influences  is  greater  than  the  number 
of  men.  To  many  readers  the  influence  of  education,  as  shown 
by  these  figures,  will  appear  of  little  importance.  But  aside 
from  the  fact  that  we  must  add  the  figures  for  foundlings  already 
cited,  we  must  also  recall  the  fact  that  many  crimes  have  an 
autochthonous  origin,  and  that  many  individuals  are  born 
perverse  and  remain  perverse,  notwithstanding  the  desperate 
efforts  of  their  parents  to  correct  them.  Among  the  juvenile 
delinquents  of  the  year  1871-72  i  84%  of  the  boys  and  60%  of 
the  girls  belonged  to  moral  families.  This  is  to  be  explained 
by  weakness  shown  by  the  parents  early  in  the  child's  training, 
which  later  renders  unavailing  their  most  strenuous  efforts  to 
obtain  obedience.  Noel,  Vidocq,  Donon,  Demarsilly,  Lacenaire, 
Abbado,  Hessel,  Fra  Diavolo,  Cartouche,  Trossarello,  Tropp- 
mann,  Anzalone,  and  Demme  all  belonged  to  honest  families. 
Rosati  told  me  that  after  his  first  thefts  he  had  many  times 
been  beaten  by  his  father  and  seen  his  mother  weeping  bitter 
tears  over  him,  and  he  had  promised  them  each  time  to  restore 
the  things  stolen,  naturally  without  keeping  his  promise.    On 

I  Beltrami-Scalia,  op.  cU. 


150  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§68 

the  other  hand  it  has  often  been  observed,  and  the  investiga- 
tions of  Parent  du  Chdtelet  and  Mayhew  confirm  the  ob- 
servation, that  thieves  and  prostitutes  who  have  become 
rich  do  their  best  to  bring  up  their  children  to  lead  virtuous 
lives. 


A 


CHAPTER  XII 

HEREDITY 

§  69.  Statistics  of  Hereditary  Influence 

MONG  104  criminals  whose  heredity  I  have  examined  I 
have  found  the  following  facts: 

71  showed  some  hereditary  influence, 
20  had  alcoholic  fathers, 
11    "    alcoholic  mothers, 
8    "    criminal  fathers, 

2  "    criminal  mothers, 

5    "    fathers  who  were  insane  or  had  had  meningitis, 

5  "    insane  or  epileptic  mothers, 

3  "    mothers  who  were  prostitutes, 

6  "    insane  brothers  and  sisters, 
14    "    criminal  brothers  and  sisters, 

4  "    epileptic  brothers  and  sisters, 

2    "    brothers  and  sisters  who  were  suicides, 
10    "    sisters  who  were  prostitutes. 

Dr.  Virgilio,  who  pursued  his  investigations  under  more  favor- 
able conditions,  found  crime  among  the  parents  of  criminals 
in  26.80%  of  the  cases,  almost  always,  as  with  alcoholism 
(present  in  the  heredity  of  21.77%  of  the  cases),  on  the  father's 
side.  Aside  from  this,  with  6%  of  the  criminals  crime  appeared 
in  collateral  lines.^ 

Penta,^  also,  found  among  184  born  criminals  at  St.  Stefano 
the  following : 


Advanced  age  of  parents 

in  29  cases,  or  16.0% 

Drunkenness    "        " 

"  50     "      "  27.0% 

Phthisis 

"  17     "      "     9.2% 

Cerebral  apoplexy  of  parents 

"  20     "      "  11.0% 

Pellagra                    "        " 

"    3     "      "     1.6% 

Insanity                    "        " 

"  12     "      "     6.5% 

Insanity    in  ancestors  or  collateral  lines  in  27  cases,  or  14.5% 

Hysteria    " 

"     "  25     "      "  13.5% 

Epilepsy     " 

"     "  17     "      "     9.2% 

Headache  " 

"     "  17     "      "     9.2% 

»  Virgilio,  "Saggio  di  Ricerche  sulla  Natura  Morbosa  del  Delitto. 
»  "Archivio  di  Psichiatria,"  XII,  1891. 


152 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§69 


In  4%  to  5%  only  were  the  parents  perfectly  sound.  Later 
he  has  given  us  a  new  table  of  statistics  of  morbid  heredity, 
embracing  447  cases  arranged  in  two  series: 


Criminality  of  parents  .... 

Hysteria 

Epilepsy 

Other  nerve  diseases 

Alcoholism 

Insanity 

Pulmonary  tuberculosis    .    .    . 
Advanced  age  of  parents  .    .    . 

Cerebral  apoplexy 

Predisposition  to  grave  disease 
Chronic  malaria 


First  series. 

Second  series. 

232  cases 

215  cases 

30 

58 

17 

38 

11 

22 

20 

65 

40 

95 

35 

50 

25 

80 

23 

55 

10 

20 

12 

20 

5 

20 

Marro  investigated  the  causes  of  death  of  230  parents  of 
criminals  and  of  100  parents  of  honest  men,  and  found  the 
following: 


In  the  case  of  the 

Father 

Mother 

Criminal 

Honest 

Criminal 

Honest 

Alcoholism 

Suicide 

7.2 
1.4 
6.5 
21.1 
6.5 
4.3 
5.1 
2.1 

2.4 

2.4 
14.6 
14.6 

2.4 
2.4 
2.4 

2.1 

'5.S 
18.2 

3.2 

6.4 
10.7 

4.3 

37 

Insanity 

Cerebro-spinal  disease   .    .    . 

Heart  disease 

Dropsy 

Phthisis 

Nervous  shock,  worry,  etc.   . 

7.i 

18.5 
3.7 

If,  in  place  of  examining  each  group  separately,  we  add  to- 
gether the  deaths  caused  by  alcoholism,  suicide,  insanity,  and 
cerebral  diseases,  we  find  that  among  the  230  parents  of  crim- 
inals these  causes  constitute  32.1%,  while  in  the  case  of  the 


§  69]  HEREDITY  153 

parents  of  normal  persons  they  are  only  16.1%,  almost  exactly 
half.  The  number  who  have  delinquent  brothers  is  especially 
great.  Out  of  500  criminals  Marro  found  68  who  had  one  or 
more  delinquent  brothers,  and  the  following  parentage: 

Insane 17 

Epileptic 4 

Delinquent 6 

Alcoholic 34  (in  4  cases  mother  as  well  as  father) 

Already  old 33  (in  4  cases  both  parents  were  old) 

In  studying  the  still  living  parents  of  500  criminals,  Marro 
found  in  40%  of  the  cases  alcoholism  of  the  father,  and  in  5% 
alcoholism  of  the  mother,  while  with  500  normal  persons  there 
was  alcoholism  in  only  16%  of  the  cases,  on  the  father's  side. 
Insanity  of  progenitors  or  in  collateral  lines  occurred  in  42.6% 
of  the  criminals  (16%  of  the  normal  cases);  epilepsy  in  5.3% 
(2%  of  the  normal  cases);  and  immoral  and  violent  character 
in  33.6%.  In  looking  into  the  question  of  parents  who  were 
insane,  apoplectic,  alcoholic,  epileptic,  hysterical,  and  delin- 
quent, including  also  cases  where  there  were  anomalies  of  age 
and  character,  he  found  a  morbid  heredity  in  the  case  of  from 
77%  to  90%  of  the  prisoners  {op.  cit.).  Sichart  studied  3881 
subjects  imprisoned  in  Wurtemberg  for  theft,  rape,  and  fraud. 
In  comparison  with  the  general  population  he  found  that 
anomalies  or  crimes  in  the  case  of  parents  of  the  various  classes 
in  the  following  proportions: 

Thieves 32.0% 

Incendiaries 36.8% 

Sexual  offenders      38.7% 

Perjurers 20.5% 

Swindlers 23.6% 

with  the  higher  numbers  then,  in  the  case  of  thieves  and  incen- 
diaries.^ Taking  account  simply  of  alcoholism,  epilepsy,  and 
suicide  in  the  direct  line,  he  found  a  morbid  heredity  in  71% 
of  the  incendiaries,  in  55%  of  the  thieves,  in  43%  of  the  ravish- 
ers,  and  in  37%  of  the  swindlers. 

With  regard  to  suicide  of  the  parents  Sichart  and  Marro  found: 

*  Both  the  French  and  the  German  versions  give  the  figure  for  sexual 
o£fendera  as  above;  but  I  suspect  it  should  be  28.7%.  —  Transl. 


154 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§69 


Suicide  of  parents  of: 


Thieves  .... 
Incendiaries  .  . 
Sexual  offenders 
Perjurers  .  .  . 
Swindlers  .  .  . 
Homicides     .    . 


Sichart 


5.0% 
8.2% 
3.9% 

2.1% 
1.5% 


Marro 


1% 


Total,  4.3%, 


Comparing  the  proportion  of  vicious  parents  of  the  3000 
criminals  given  by  Sichart  with  those  reported  by  Marro,  we 
find  them  so  divided: 


Vicious  parents 

Sichart 

Marro 

Thieves      

20.9% 
11.0% 
10.8% 
9.4% 
6.0% 
12.0% 

45.0% 

14.2% 
32.4% 
28.2% 

Incendiaries 

Swindlers 

Sexual  offenders 

Perjurers 

Libelers      

We  have  here  very  high  figures  for  thieves,  not  so  high  for 
swindlers,  and  lowest  for  incendiaries  and  perjurers.  Of  3580 
juvenile  crimmals  of  Mettray,  707  were  children  of  convicts 
and  308  of  parents  living  in  concubinage.^  Of  the  inmates 
of  the  Elmira  reformatory,  there  were  13.7%  whose  parents 
were  insane  or  epileptic;  38%  whose  parents  were  drunkards. 
Thompson,  out  of  109  convicts,  found  50  who  were  related  to 
one  another,  3  of  them  being  members  of  one  family  and  de- 
scended from  a  recidivist.  He  noted  also  2  sisters  and  3 
brothers,  all  thieves,  whose  father,  uncles,  aunts,  and  cousins 
were  murderers.  In  one  family  of  15  members,  of  whom 
14  were  counterfeiters,  the  fifteenth  appeared  honest,  till  one 
day  he  set  fire  to  his  house,  after  having  insured  it  four  times 
over. 

»  Brace,  op.  cU. 


§70] 


HEREDITY 


155 


The  influence  of  heredity  may  be  observed  among  the  female 
offenders  and  prostitutes  studied  by  Mme.  Tarnowski,  Marro,^ 
etc.,  and  by  Parent-du-Chdtelet.  Of  5583  prostitutes  Parent- 
du-Chatelet  found  252  who  were  sisters,  13  mothers  and  daugh- 
ters, 32  cousins,  4  aunts  and  nieces.  One  cannot  read  without 
a  feeling  of  repugnance  the  speech  that  was  made  to  Lacour  by 
one  of  these  unfortunates:  "My  father  is  in  prison,  and  my 
mother  is  living  with  the  man  who  seduced  me.  She  has  had 
a  child  by  him,  whom  I  and  my  brother  are  bringing  up." 

§  70.   Clinical  Proofs 

I  have  studied  a  child  in  the  prison  at  Pavia  who  had  very 
exaggerated  prognathism,  tufted  hair,  feminine  physiognomy, 
and  strabismus.  He  had  been  guilty  of  murder  at  12  years  of 
age,  and  had  been  besides  con\4cted  of  theft  6  times;  2  of  his 
brothers  were  thieves,  2  sisters  prostitutes,  and  his  mother  was 
a  receiver  of  stolen  goods.  Five  brothers  and  a  brother-in-law 
of  the  Fossay  family  were  convicted  for  participation  in  a 
robbery.  Their  grandfather  and  their  father  had  both  been 
hanged;  two  uncles  and  a  nephew  were  in  prison.  A  more 
noteworthy  proof  of  hereditary  influence  is  offered  by  Dr. 
Harris,  who,  noticing  in  a  certain  county  on  the  upper  Hud- 
son the  great  number  of  crimes  committed  by  persons  of  the 
same  name,  consulted  the  registers  and  discovered  that  a 
great  part  of  the  inhabitants  were  descended  from  a  cer- 
tain Margaret,  a  woman  of  evil  life,  who  had  lived  there 
two   centuries  before,  among  whose   descendants   there  were 


Father  alcoholic 
Father  insane  .  .  . 
Parents  old  .... 
Parents  epileptic  . 
Parents  tuberculous 
Parents  delinquent 


Female 
criminals 

Female 
criminals 

Prosti- 
tutes 

(Salsotto) 

(Marro) 

(Grimaldi) 

6.6% 

6.6% 

17.0% 

2.6% 

40.0% 

7.6% 

26.0% 

4.23% 

? 

19.7% 

Thieves 


Prosti- 
tutes 


(Tarnowski) 


49% 


19% 


82% 
3% 
8% 
6% 

44% 


156  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  70 

200   delinquents   and   200   more   who  were   either   insane  or 

vagrants.* 

Despine  has  given  us  another  proof  in  the  genealogy  of  the 
Lemaitre  and  Cretien  families,  which  I  have  here  arranged 
in  tabular  form  that  it  may  be  taken  in  at  a  glance. 

G.   CRETIEN 


Pierre 

condemned  for 

murder 

I 

A.  F. 

thief  and  assassin 

died  in  galleys 


Thomas 
uxoricide 


Martin, 
assassin 

e'x. 

thief  and 
uncle  of  Lemaitre 

A.  Tanre 


Francois, 
uxoricide 


J.  B. 

I    . 
Francois, 

married  to 

P.  Tanre,  a  young 

girl  of  evil  life 


M.  Rose 

thief 
convicted 
11  times 


Andre, 
assassin 
(by  first 
marriage) 


thief      murderer     thief     thief      murderer      thief 
(by  second  marriage  with  Rose  Cretien) 

C.  Lemaitre 


A.  Francis 


Auguste 

I 


S.  F.,  tWef 

C,  thief 
died  in  prison 

Marie,  thief 

I 
Benoit,  thief 

died  in 

prison 

Victor,  thief 
died  in 
prison 


Vict.  Lem.         Auguste  T.  T.        ==  Victorine,  honest 

I  I 

P.,  thief        Lem.,  assassin 
incendiary 


The  Fieschi  also  were  hereditary  assassins. 

Great-grandfather  Fieschi 


G.  Antoine 
assassin 

1 

G.  Dominique 

1 

2  thieves        1  brigand 

Louis,  married  to  the 
sister  of  a  convict 

1 

2  honest 
children 

1  honest 
son 

1                             1 
Fieschi,              Deaf-mute 
assassin                 honest 

Strahan  ^  gives  us  yet  another  proof  of  hereditary  criminal- 
ity in  the  history  of  a  family  whose  descendants  numbered  834 
individuals,  of  709  of  whom  it  was  possible  to  trace  the  history 
with  suflBcient  accuracy.  Among  the  709  there  were  106  illegit- 
imate children,  164  prostitutes,  17  procurers,  142  beggars,  63 
in  hospitals  for  chronic  diseases,  and  76  criminals,  who  all  to- 

1  "Atlantic  Monthly,"  1875.     [This  is  the  Juke  family,  described  later, 
which  was  investigated  by  Dugdale  at  Harris's  suggestion,  —  Transl.] 
*  "Instinctive  Criminality,"  London,  1892. 


§  70]  HEREDITY  157 

gether  spent  166  years  in  prison.  The  Y.  family  ^  occupied 
a  high  place  in  society  in  past  times,  but  at  the  beginning  of 
the  19th  century  had  fallen  completely  into  decay  and  con- 
sisted only  of  the  sons  of  two  brothers,  Lu and  Rene.    Rene 

had  passed  all  his  life  in  contact  with  criminals  without  having 
been  convicted  himself.  He  was  an  original,  passionately  fond 
of  cock-fights,  and  addicted  to  lechery.  He  had  innumerable 
mistresses  and  children,  so  that  all  the  children  of  the  quarter 
called  him  "papa."  One  of  his  mistresses  was  the  mother  of 
a  great  number  of  criminals.  The  family  of  his  brother  pre- 
sented nothing  abnormal,  except  that  one  of  his  sons,  learning 
that  his  uncle  Rene  had  disinherited  him,  killed  himself  the 
day  after  the  latter's  death,  and  left  behind  him  this  writing: 

"  Let  no  one  be  accused  of  my  death;  I  have  killed  myself  to 
escape  from  insupportable  enemies  whom  my  stupidity  has 
gained  for  me,  and  because  I  have  not  been  sufficiently  on  my 
guard  against  the  rascality  of  certain  people." 

The  two  mistresses  of  Rene  who  gave  him  a  progeny  of  degen- 
erates were  Z.,  wife  of  an  executioner,  from  whom  was  born  a  tu- 
berculous daughter  that  died  at  24,  and  F.,  who  was  also  married, 
and  accused  by  public  opinion  of  having  poisoned  her  husband. 
F.  had  5  children,  of  whom  2  were  by  her  husband  and  3 
by  her  paramour.  The  children  of  the  husband  were:  1st, 
Z.,  who  lived  separated  from  her  husband,  was  a  mattoid  and 
quarrelsome.  Everything  furnished  her  with  an  opportunity 
for  a  lawsuit,  which,  however,  she  regularly  lost.  She  had 
many  paramours,  among  others  an  orator  of  great  talent,  by 
whom  she  had  several  children,  including  a  celebrated  poet, 
painter,  etc.  2d,  Fl.,  proprietress  of  a  house  of  ill  fame;  she 
had  two  children,  of  whom  one  was  blind  and  the  other  had 
Parkinson's  paralysis.  Among  the  children  whom  F.  had  by 
her  paramour  Rene,  were  the  following:  1st,  Em.,  who,  while 
watching  by  the  body  of  her  father,  became  drunk  with  her  sister- 
in-law.  She  had  a  daughter  of  evil  life;  also  a  niece  who  was  a 
prostitute  at  15  and  a  thief.  2d,  Em.,  a  peasant,  who  tried 
to  hang  himself.  He  married  FL,  a  woman  of  dissolute  morals, 
notorious  for  her  incestuous  relations  with  her  oldest  son  and 
^  Aubry,  "La  Contagion  du  Meutre,"  Paris,  1889. 


158  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  70 

associated  in  theft  with  her  daughter,  who  was  a  drunkard.  She 
was  strongly  suspected  of  having  killed  her  son-in-law,  and 
her  daughter  called  her  "The  old  woman  loaded  with  crimes." 

From  this  sad  marriage  were  born  two  children:  1st,  Marie, 
who,  during  a  menstrual  period,  killed  her  husband,  with  the 
aid  of  her  mother.  They  were  both  acquitted.  2d  Am.,  who 
had  sexual  intercourse  with  his  mother,  and  killed  the  husband 
of  his  mistress.  In  a  collateral  branch  of  the  family  of  Fl.,  the 
daughter  of  F.,  there  are  many  bankrupt  merchants;  a  mother 
who,  notwithstanding  her  numerous  children,  eloped  with  her 
last  lover,  carrying  off  the  money-box;  a  husband  who,  after 
having  gone  off  and  squandered  the  family  fortune,  returned 
to  live  at  his  wife's  expense;  and  a  brother  of  Marie's  second 
husband,  who  killed  first  his  adulterous  wife  and  then  himself. 
In  this  family  nearly  all  the  members  have  committed  one  or 
more  crimes,  and  those  who  are  not  criminals  are  suicides.  But 
there  is  a  collateral  branch,  that  of  Z.,  which  is  composed 
of  persons  who  occupy  a  high  place  in  art.  This  family  con- 
firms, then,  the  close  connection  that  exists  between  genius  and 
crime. 

Laurent  ^  tells  us  the  story  of  a  whole  family  of  criminals, 
who  support  wonderfully  the  data  of  Marro  and  Aubry.  In 
this  family  the  paternal  grandfather  died  of  an  affection  of  the 
heart.  He  was  of  weak  character  and  completely  dominated  by 
his  wife.  She,  nervous  and  eccentric,  struck  her  husband  on 
all  occasions,  and  was  so  irascible  that  she  even  took  pleasure 
in  striking  her  sister  when  she  was  sick.  The  father  was  very 
nervous  and  violent,  but  a  coward,  and  although  he  had  knowl- 
edge of  the  dissolute  conduct  of  his  wife,  he  had  not  courage  to 
intervene.  He  died  of  aortic  insufficiency.  A  paternal  uncle, 
who  was  very  vicious  and  violent,  struck  his  parents  to  get  money 
from  them.  He  took  advantage  of  their  absence  to  sell  a  part 
of  the  furniture,  and  tried  to  kill  his  son  on  account  of  jealousy. 
A  cousin  german  of  the  two  preceding  was  addicted  to  peder-  \^ 
asty.  The  maternal  grandfather  was  intelligent,  but  a  drunkard, 
and  served  two  years  in  prison  for  theft.  He  was  a  captain 
under  the  Commune,  but  was  punished  for  misconduct.  He 
*  "Les  Habitu6s  des  Prisons." 


^^ 


§70]  HEREDITY  159 

was  unbalanced,  brutal,  and  coarse.  By  his  first  marriage  he 
had  four  daughters,  whose  mental  state  we  shall  describe  later. 
The  maternal  grandmother  abandoned  her  children,  and  dis- 
sipated the  week's  wages  in  company  with  her  husband.  She 
died  of  cancer  of  the  uterus.  The  mother,  very  vicious,  idle, 
and  violent,  married  at  the  age  of  20  and  had  two  children 
by  her  marriage.  At  23  she  abandoned  her  husband  to  live 
with  a  young  man,  by  whom  she  had  a  son.  She  later 
returned  to  her  husband  and  by  him  had  a  fourth  child,  yet 
during  this  time  was  the  mistress  of  a  wine  merchant.  To  this 
paramour  succeeded  another,  and  at  the  age  of  35  she  brought 
into  the  world  a  fifth  child.  Abandoning  her  family  and  chil- 
dren without  concern,  she  spent  her  time  playing  cards  in  dives  ;  V]^ 
and  quarrelling  with  drunkards.  She  tried  several  times,  while  ^ 
in  a  state  of  drunkenness,  to  kill  her  husband.  At  37  she  had, 
by  one  of  her  lovers,  a  sixth  infant,  who  died  of  meningitis. 
She  became  pregnant  once  more,  and  abandoned  definitely 
the  conjugal  roof,  taking  her  daughters  with  her  but  giving 
them  up  to  the  first  comer,  to  surrender  herself  to  drink.  At 
the  age  of  39  she  became  pregnant  once  more,  and  had  her 
paramour  produce  an  abortion.  This  woman  had  three  sisters. 
The  first  was  vicious  from  infancy  and  abandoned  herself  to 
a  life  of  prostitution  at  the  age  of  16.  So  irascible  was  she  that 
in  a  fit  of  jealousy  she  tore  off  another  woman's  ear.  The 
second  sister,  dull,  lascivious,  and  given  to  drink,  had  three 
children,  one  of  whom  at  the  age  of  9  she  threw  out  of  the  win- 
dow for  some  trifling  reason;  and  another  time,  without  ap- 
parent cause,  she  threw  it  in  front  of  the  wheels  of  a  carriage. 
It  suffered  from  meningitis,  but  recovered.  The  third  sister  was 
weak-minded  and  dissipated,  and  used  to  get  drunk  in  company 
with  her  husband. 

Let  us  pass  on  now  to  the  examination  of  the  third  generation, 
which  includes  8  children:  1st,  A  young  girl  of  19  years,  very 
blond,  not  very  intelligent,  very  hairy,  with  a  high-arched 
palate,  and  frontal  protuberances  strongly  developed.  Mali- 
cious and  jealous,  she  put  pins  in  her  brothers'  broth.  When 
ten  years  old  she  was  found  in  a  dive  with  some  young  men, 
giving  herself  up  to  a  precocious  debauch.    2d,  A  young  man 


160  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  71 

of  18  years,  a  workman,  economical  and  honest  but  nervous 
and  stubborn  and  of  weak  character  Uke  his  father.  3d,  An 
adulterous  daughter  of  15,  vicious,  a  drinker,  and  a  gourmand. 
She  frequented  the  wine-shops,  was  often  drunk,  and  stole 
from  the  show-cases  of  the  grocers.  4th,  A  daughter  of  14, 
lazy,  deceitful,  thievish,  irascible,  egoistic,  coquettish,  and 
lascivious.  Her  figure  is  constantly  contracted  by  a  nervous 
twitching,  her  physiognomy  is  one  continual  grimace.  Having 
no  family  feeling  she  takes  advantage,  when  her  grandmother 
is  asleep,  to  pinch  her  legs,  in  revenge  for  punishments  that 
she  herself  has  received.  5th,  An  eight-year-old  boy,  rickety, 
scrofulous,  very  nervous,  irascible,  and  despotic.  He  has  par- 
oxysms, when  he  breaks  anything  that  comes  into  his  hands. 
6th,  An  adulterous  daughter,  who  died  at  16  of  meningitis. 

The  famous  thief  Sans  Refus  was  the  daughter  of  a  thief 
named  Comtois,  who  died  upon  the  wheel  in  1788,  and  of  a 
female  thief  named  Lempave.  Marianne,  the  most  skilful  mem- 
ber of  the  Thiebert  band,  was  the  child  of  two  thieves,  her 
father  being  a  recidivist  five  times  over.  She  first  saw  light 
on  the  highroad,  in  a  stolen  cart.^  Sighele  has  studied  all  the 
proceedings  instituted  against  the  inhabitants  of  Artena  since 
1852  and  has  continually  met  the  same  name;  father,  son,  and 
nephew  follow  one  another  at  intervals,  as  if  impelled  by  a 
fatal  law.  In  the  last  trial  there  were  two  families  concerned 
who  were  already  known  in  criminal  annals.  One  was  composed 
of  seven  members,  the  other  of  six,  father,  mother,  and  four 
sons,  not  one  lacking. 

"  It  is  appropriate  in  this  connection,"  says  Sighele,^  "  to 
quote  the  words  of  Vidocq :  '  There  are  families  in  which  crime 
is  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation,  and  which  appear 
to  exist  only  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  old  proverb,  Like  father, 
like  son.' "  * 

§  71.   Elective  Affinities 

We  see  that  this  heredity,  rendered  so  active  by  the  union  of 
two  criminal  famihes,  from  which  organized  bands  naturally 

1  Lucas,  "De  I'H^r^dit^  Naturelle,  p.  487. 

*  "Archivio  di  Psichiatria,"  1894. 

*  "Bon  chien  chasse  de  race." 


§72]  HEREDITY  161 

arise,  has  its  source  in  a  kind  of  elective  affinity  impelling  the 
delinquent  woman  to  choose  a  lover  op  husband  from  among 
those  most  inclined  to  crime.  We  may  recall  the  elective  af- 
finity which,  in  the  Y.  family,  drove  Rene  to  choose  his  mis- 
tresses among  the  prostitutes  and  delinquents;  as  well  as  the 
marriages  of  the  Cretien  and  Lemaitre  families.  We  find 
another  striking  example  of  this  affinity  in  the  fatal  sympathy 
of  the  Marquise  de  Brinvilliers  for  Sainte-Croix;    and  in  that 

of  Louise  Poch and  Marie  Catel ,  thieves,  swindlers, 

and  prostitutes,  for  Rossignol.  The  former  of  these  felt  herself 
drawn  to  him  when  her  rival  told  her  in  prison  of  his  exploits. 

Marie  Catel ,  born  of  a  noble  family,  was  already  ruined  at 

the  age  of  14,  and  at  15  she  had  committed  highway  robbery 
as  Rossignol's  accomplice.  In  Turin  there  was  a  certain  girl 
named  Camburzano  who  became  the  mistress  of  a  thief  while 
not  yet  nubile.  When  sent  to  a  reformatory  she  escaped,  and 
the  same  day  joined  herself  with  an  assassin  named  Tomo, 
whose  accomplice  she  became,  and  the  instigator  of  his  most 
atrocious  murders. 


§  72.  Atavistic  Heredity  in  the  Juke  Family 

But  the  most  striking  proof  of  the  heredity  of  crime  and  of  its 
relation  to  prostitution  and  mental  diseases  is  furnished  us  by 
the  fine  study  which  Dugdale  has  made  of  the  Juke  family.^ 
The  originator  of  this  deplorable  family  was  a  certain  hunter, 
fisher,  and  libertine,  called  by  Dugdale  "Max  Juke,"  who  was 
born  some  time  between  1720  and  1740.  He  became  blind  in 
his  old  age.  He  had  numerous  descendants,  540  legitimate,  and 
169  illegitimate.  All  the  ramifications  of  his  posterity  cannot 
be  traced  down  to  the  present;  but  we  have  the  lines  of  descent 
from  5  daughters  (3  of  whom  were  prostitutes  before  they 
married)  as  well  as  that  of  some  collateral  branches,  for  7  gen- 
erations.   We  give  the  tabular  summary  of  the  family: 

1  Dugdale,  "The  Jukes"  (Putnam,  4th  ed.,  1911),  reprinted  from  the 
"Thirtieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Prison 
Association  of  New  York  for  1874." 


162 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  72 


a 

h 
is 

Parrntage  bt  Sex 

O    i> 

1 

•a 

„         ,             1-        i  Juke  women 

Second  generation   ^  ^  ^^^^ 

'Juke  women 

__  .  J              ..             X  women 

Third  generation     ^j^teinen 

,X  men 

/•Juke  women 

_,      ^.              ..X  women 

Fourth  generation  ^j^kemen 

[X  men 

'Juke  women 

■„.,.,              ..             X  women 

Fifth  generation      ^j^kemen 

X  men 

rJuke  women 

Sixth  generation     if^^Z   [    .   .   \   .    : 
IX  men 

o        .t.             1-      <  Juke  women 

Seventh  generation  jj^^^^^ 

'Juke  women 

rn  .  I             I-          J  X  women 

Total  generabon     ^j^j^^^^^ 

vX  men 

Juke  blood 

5 

5 

S4 

16 

in 

59 

224 

84 
152 

5 
8 

540 
169 

5 

5 
16 

7 
18 

9 
46 
25 
57 
34 
119 
33 
102 
51 
63 

2 
48 

3 

3 

252 

67 

225 

102 

477 
169 

1 

2 
15 

3 
12 

38 

6 

46 

5 

94 

4 

70 

11 

33 

'27 

i 

i82 
IS 

155 
18 

377 
31 

i 

6 

2 

1 

? 

17 
2 

20 
3 

13 

26 

'2 

33 
3 

49 
6 

82 
9 

X  blood 

Grand  total 

709 

645 

368 

91 

Note.  —  X  indicates  persons  not  of  Juke  blood 

We  see  from  this  table  the  singular  connection  existing  between 
prostitution,  crime,  and  sickness;  for  from  the  same  hereditary 
causes  we  find: 

"Max" 


76  delinquents  and 
142  vagrants  and 
beggars 

64  in  almshouses 


128  prostitutes 
18  brothel-keej)ers 
91  illegitimate 


I 

131  impotent, 
idiotic,  or 
syphilitic 

46  sterile 


§72] 


HEREDITY 


1^3 


Marriage  Relations 

S 

Pauperism 

Crime 

o 

1 

en 

2 

1 

1 

-11 

ji 

-^1 

1 

2 

0  &< 

1^ 

2 

i 

d 

Ii 

8*0 

1 

"o 
d 

§ 

•s 

i 

§ 

i 

.S 
2 

•0 

5 
5 

3 

•  • 

13 

"i 

i 

3 

5 

3 

20 

2 

'2 

4 

3 

1 

23 

11 

4 

'4 

i 

6 

54 

3 

6 

i 

i 

5 

4 

1 

2 

14 

3 

5 

2 

3 

2 

26 

6 

8 

12 

3 

5 

12 

18 

122 

7 

7 

5 

1 

7 

15 

3 

4 

4 

1 

7 

8 

53 

3 

3 

2 

K 

2 

22 

4 

7 

1 

6 

19 

129 

S 

12 

12 

11 

15 

19 

15 

1 

3 

2 

11 

50 

3 

3 

10 

13 

11 

37 

6 

3 

36 

5 

5 

25 

24 

100 

12 

18 

9 

M 

15 

15 

2 

1 

14 

4 

2 

11 

49 

2 

4 

1 

H 

1 

21 

12 

7 

7 

25 

87 

11 

21 

18 

72 

41 

26 

14 

6 

'2 

4 

14 

33 

2 

8 

16 

2 

2 

2 

1 

3 

8 

2 

H 

2 

1 

1 

1 

"7 

7 

2 

6H 

'2 

2 

i 

83 

is 

i2 

53 

is 

ii 

37 

45 

242 

24 

35 

ie 

ik 

24 

35 

6 

1 

21 

8 

1 

9 

20 

125 

5 

7 

3 

H 

3 

55 

20 

18 

1 

14 

50 

270 

29 

46 

33 

89H 

59 

57 

34 

7 

5 

7 

27 

97 

6 

7 

24 

24 

29 

138 

is 

i2 

73 

31 

12 

57 

95 

512 

53 

81 

49 

91M 

83 

92 

6 

1 

55 

15 

6 

16 

47 

222 

11 

15 

27 

24% 

32 

230 

24 

13 

128 

46 

18 

67 

142 

734 

64 

96 

76 

116 

115 

but  connected  with  them  by  marriage  or  cohabitation. 


We  see  the  delinquents  scantily  represented  in  the  second  gen- 
eration, but  multiplying  with  extraordinary  rapidity,  and  rising 
from  29  in  the  fourth  generation  to  40  in  the  fifth:  just  as  the 
number  of  prostitutes  rises  from  14  to  35  and  76 ;  and  of  beggars, 
which  increases  from  11  to  56  and  74.  They  diminish  in  the 
sixth  and  seventh  generations,  only  because  Nature  herself 
makes  an  end  of  the  matter  through  the  sterility  of  the  women, 
which  affected  9  individuals  in  the  third  generation  and  22  in 


164  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  72 

the  fifth,  and  also  by  the  early  deaths  of  the  children,  which 
rose  as  high  as  300  in  the  last  years.  The  members  of  this 
family  passed  altogether  116  years  in  prison,  and  received  poor- 
relief  for  a  total  of  830  years.  In  the  fifth  generation  half  the 
women  were  unchaste,  and  a  correspondingly  high  number  of 
the  men  criminals.  Of  the  seventh  generation  the  oldest  indi- 
vidual had  reached  the  age  of  only  7  years,  yet  6  members  of 
it  were  in  almshouses.  In  75  years  the  maintenance  of  this 
family  and  the  damage  done  by  them  cost  the  state  $1,300,000. 
It  has  been  shown  that  in  all  or  nearly  all  the  branches  of 
this  family  the  tendency  to  crime,  unlike  the  tendency  to  pau- 
perism, was  strongest  with  the  eldest  son,  always  following  the 
male  line  in  preference  to  the  female.  This  tendency  was  ac- 
companied by  excess  of  vitality,  fecundity,  and  vigor,  and  was 
more  developed  in  the  illegitimate  lines  than  in  the  legitimate, 
a  statement  which  is  also  true  of  the  other  forms  of  immorality. 
Thus,  by  comparing  the  38  illegitimate  members  of  the  fifth 
generation  with  the  85  legitimate  members  we  get  the  following: 


4  drunka: 


38  illegitimate  85  legitimate 

I I 

rds     11  beggars,         16  convicts,  6        5  convicts         13  beggars  or 
idiots,  or  of  whom  were  prostitutes 

prostitutes         convicted  for 
serious  crimes 


The  figures  here  given  for  prostitution  represent  only  a  small 
part  of  the  sexual  immorahty,  as  is  proved  by  the  large  number 
of  bastards  {'21%  of  the  males  and  13%  of  the  females),  of 
syphilitics,  and  "harlots,"  ^  of  whom  there  were  60%  in  the 
second  generation  (3  daughters  out  of  the  5),  37%  in  the  third, 
69%  in  the  fourth,  48%  in  the  fifth,  and  38%  in  the  sixth,  an 
average  of  52.40%.  In  addition  there  were  42%  of  hariots 
among  the  women  who  married  into  the  family.  The  data 
with  regard  to  exaggerated  fecundity  and  to  prostitution  tend 
to  prove  that  sexual  excesses  are  one  of  the  most  serious  causes 
of  pauperism,  which,  in  its  turn,  appears  to  be  hereditary  in 
its  character,  especially  with  the  women,  and  to  gain  recruits 

'  Dugdale  uses  this  word  for  women  who  have  been  guilty  of  any 
unchaatity,  reservmg  the  term  "prostitute"  for  professionals.  —  Tkansl. 


§72] 


HEREDITY 


165 


by  preference  among  the  young.  Pauperism,  again,  is  bound 
up  with  crime  and  disease,  on  account  of  the  great  number  of 
individuals  who  become  tainted  with  syphiUs,  or  have  bodily 
deformities,  or  inherit  a  tendency  to  crime  or  vagrancy.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  noted  that  in  the  families  where  the  brothers 
are  criminals,  the  sisters  give  themselves  up  to  prostitution,  and 
are  indicted  only  for  sexual  oflFenses.  So  Dugdale  says  (p.  26), 
"Prostitution  in  the  woman  is  the  analogue  of  crime  and  pau- 
perism in  the  man."  It  may  be  seen  here  how  prostitution 
arises  by  heredity,  without  being  explainable  by  destitution  or 
other  causes,  and  is  checked  only  by  the  intervention  of  an  early 
marriage.  The  distribution  of  the  bastards  as  to  sex  (21%  of 
the  males,  13%  of  the  females)  shows  a  curious  predominance 
of  the  male  sex,  while  the  opposite  is  true  among  the  legitimate 
offspring.  Among  the  first  born,  also,  where  legitimate,  daugh- 
ters predominate;  and  where  illegitimate,  sons.  The  following 
table  shows  us  the  connection  between  crime  and  prostitution 
on  one  side,  and  disease  and  deformity  on  the  other: 

Diseases,  Malformations,  and  Injuries 


1 

.g 

s 

B 

1— 1 

o 

H- 1 

.2 

-§•0 

Eh 

a. 

1 
.2  .2 

0 

0 

i 

0.2 

Number  of 
diseased  persons 
receiving  relief 

1 
1 

Juke  blood   .    . 
X  blood    .    .    . 

1 

10 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 
1 

29 
13 

22 
3 

i 

65 
20 

33 
15 

50.77 
56.47 

Total    .    .    . 

1 

11 

1 

1 

1 

2 

42 

25 

1 

85 

Altogether  Dugdale  found  200  thieves  and  other  criminals,  280 
beggars  or  invalids,  90  prostitutes  or  women  afflicted  with 
syphilis,  all  descended  from  one  drunkard;  to  which  should  be 
added,  as  additional  consequences,  300  children  dying  prema- 
turely, 400  men  infected  with  syphilis,  and  7  assassinated. 

This  is  not  a  unique  case.    The  savage  Galetto  of  Marseilles 
was  a  nephew  of  Ortolano,  ravisher  and  cannibal;  Dumollard 


166  CREVIE:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  73 

was  the  son  of  a  murderer;  Patetot  had  assassins  for  grandfather 
and  great-grandfather;  Papa,  Crocco,  and  Serravalle  had  grand- 
fathers who  had  been  in  prison,  and  Cavalante's  father  and 
grandfather  both  were  convicts.  The  Cornu  family  were  assas- 
sins from  father  to  son,  as  were  the  Verdures,  the  Cerfbeers, 
and  Nathans.    Of  this  last  family  14  members  were  incarcerated 

at  one  time  in  the  same  prison.    Mocc ,  a  brazen  adulteress, 

who  poisoned  her  husband,  was  the  issue  of  an  incest;  and 
prostitutes  are  nearly  always  daughters  of  delinquents  or  drunk- 
ards. Mme.  de  Pompadour  was  the  daughter  of  a  drunken 
thief  who  had  been  pardoned. 

§  73.  Insanity  of  Parents 

As  all  these  dismal  genealogies  prove  to  us,  a  certain  number 
of  the  parents  of  criminals  are  afflicted  with  insanity.  I  have 
found  in  the  case  of  314  criminals  whose  descent  was  known  to 
me,  7  whose  fathers  were  insane,  2  who  had  fathers  that  were 
epileptic,  while  in  the  case  of  4  the  mother,  in  2  cases  the  father, 
in  3  a  brother,  in  4  an  uncle,  and  in  1  a  cousin,  were  afflicted 
with  cretinism.  Of  100  other  criminals  5  had  insane  mothers, 
3  insane  fathers,  6  insane  brothers,  and  4  had  epileptic  brothers. 
I  had  under  my  care  in  Pavia  a  family  whose  genealogy  alter- 
nated between  criminals  and  prostitutes,  as  seen  by  the  following 
outline : 

Fe  .  . .  ri,  insane  at  80,  with  hallucinations 


L.,  insane,  committed  incest  Insane,  guilty  of  assault 


III  I  Thief 

Thief       Thief            Suicide  Prosti-        Prosti-  I 

at  9       committed  tute             tute  Prostitute 
incest 

Another  family  that  I  have  investigated  was  as  follows: 

Ala  ...    ==  Wife,  epileptic 
poisoned  | 

his 


wife 


G  D  A  P  A  F 

Murderer        Suicide         Killed  in         Maniac        Drunkard       Prostitute 
brawl  at  15 


§73] 


HEREDITY 


167 


In  the  cases  of  67  insane  criminals  Moeli  found  in  61%,  in- 
sanity or  epilepsy  of  parents;  15%,  suicide  or  criminality  of 
parents;  21%,  insanity  of  brothers  or  sisters.^  Kock,^  leaving 
aside  all  doubtful  cases,  found  that  46%  of  criminals  were  of 
morbid  descent.  Virgilio  studied  266  convicts,  all,  however, 
with  chronic  diseases,  10  of  them  being  insane  and  13  epileptic. 
He  found  insanity  of  1  parent,  generally  the  father.  Epi- 
lepsy was  present  with  still  greater  frequency,  being  found  in 
14.1%  of  the  cases.  In  6  cases  the  father  was  eccentric,  in  1 
the  mother;  in  1  case  the  father  was  a  semi-imbecile.  One 
ravisher  had  a  deaf-mute  father.  Penta  found  insanity  among 
the  parents  of  16%  of  the  criminals  investigated  by  him.  At 
Elmira,  N.  Y.,  in  1890,  127  of  the  prisoners  had  insane  or  epi- 
leptic parents.    Marro  and  Sichart  found: 

Insanity  of  Parents 


Sichart 

Marro 

Incendiaries 

11.0% 

3.5% 
6.4% 
5.5% 
3.1% 

28.5% 

Sexual  criminals 

10.2% 

Thieves 

14.5% 

Swindlers 

10.3% 

Perjurers 

Homicides 

17.0% 

Guilty  of  assault 

14.0% 

Gottin,  who  set  fire  to  the  house  of  his  benefactor,  had  an 
insane  grandfather;  Mio  had  his  father  and  grandfather  both 
insane;  Jean  de  Agordo,  a  parricide,  had  insane  brothers;  Mar- 
tinati's  sister  was  a  cretin;  Vizzocaro,  at  once  parricide  and 
fratricide,  and  Palmerini,  an  assassin,  both  had  insane  brothers 
and  uncles;  Bussi,  insane  father  and  mother;  Alberti,  an  insane 
father  and  grandfather;  Faella,  an  insane  father;  Guiteau  had 
an  insane  father,  uncles,  and  cousins;  Perussi,  a  forger  and  mur- 
derer, who  was  born  in  an  insane  asylum,  had  an  insane  mother, 
who  committed  suicide,  and  a  father  with  megalomania;  Verger 
had  a  mother  and  sisters  who  were  suicides;  Goudfroy,  who 

1  "Ueber  irre  Verbrecher,"  1888. 

*  "Zur  Statistik  der  Geisteskrankheiten  in  Wiirtemberg,"  p.  161, 
Stuttgart,  1877. 


168  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  RExMEDIES  [§  74 

killed  his  wife,  mother,  and  sisters,  after  insuring  their  lives  in 
his  favor,  had  an  insane  grandmother  and  uncles;  Didier,  a 
parricide,  had  an  insane  father;  Louise  Brienz,  who  killed  her 
husband,  had  an  epileptic  mother  and  an  insane  sister;  and 
Ceresa,  Abbado,  and  Kulmann  all  had  insane  parents. 

In  this  connection  we  find  the  same  thing  true  of  the  insane 
as  of  criminals.  Golgi,  Stewart,  and  Tigges  have  proved  that 
insane  men  are  more  apt  to  have  insanity  on  the  paternal  side 
than  on  the  maternal,^  as  is  also  the  case  with  criminals.  How- 
ever, it  is  important  for  the  purposes  of  medical  jurisprudence 
to  note  that  insanity  of  the  parents  is  less  frequent  with  crim- 
inals than  with  the  insane.  Among  3115  insane  persons  Tigges 
found  that  28%  had  insane  parents,  while  Stewart's  figure  is 
49%,  and  that  of  Golgi  53%.  If  we  take  in  also  the  hereditary 
influence  of  epilepsy  and  other  nervous  diseases,  Golgi  gives  us 
a  figure  of  78%. 

§  74.  Epilepsy  of  Parents 

Knecht  found  epilepsy  among  the  parents  of  15%  of  the 
criminals  examined  by  him;  Ribaudo,  investigating  559  military 
prisoners,  found  10.1%;  Penta  found  9.2%  among  the  parents 
of  184  born  criminals.  Clark  showed  that  46%  of  the  parents  of 
epileptic  criminals  had  epilepsy,  and  only  21%  of  the  parents 
of  non-criminal  epileptics.  Dejerine,  however,  gives  the  figures 
as  74.6%  and  34.6%,  but,  though  higher,  the  ratio  between 
criminal  and  non-criminal  remains  the  same.  Marro  and  Si- 
chart  found  the  following  percentages  of  epileptics  among 
various  classes  of  criminals: 


Sichart 

Marro 

Thieves 

2.1% 
2.0% 
1.8% 
1.2% 

3.3% 
1.3% 

Swindlers 

Incendiaries 

Sexual  criminals 

Perjurers 

Homicides      

7.0% 

»  St€waxt,  "On  Hereditary  Insanity,"  London,  1S74. 


§75] 


HEREDITY 


169 


§  75.  Alcoholic  Heredity 

Penta  found  alcoholism  in  33%  of  the  parents  of  criminals, 
and  I  myself  have  met  it  in  20%.  At  Elmira,  of  6300  criminals 
under  age,  38%  had  drunken  parents.  Legrain  ^  found  that 
157  individuals,  belonging  to  50  different  families  of  alcoholics, 
showed  the  following:  Insane,  54%;  alcoholics,  62%;  epileptics, 
61%;  having  convulsions,  29%;  morally  insane,  14%;  having 
meningitis,  6.5%.  According  to  Baer  the  following  percentages 
of  the  parents  of  criminals  were  drunken:  In  Saxony,  10.5%; 
Baden,  19.5%;  Wurtemberg,  19.8%;  Alsace,  22.0%;  Prussia, 
22.1%;  Bavaria,  34.6%.  Sichart  and  Marro  found  the  parents 
of  criminals  alcoholic  in  the  following  proportions : 


Sichart 

Marro 

Thieves 

14.3% 
13.3% 
13.3% 
11.1% 

14.2% 

46.6% 
32.4% 

Swindlers 

Incendiaries 

42.8% 

Perjurers 

Sexual  Criminals 

43.5% 

Marro  found  also  49%  in  the  case  of  parents  of  homicides,  and 
50%  of  the  parents  of  those  guilty  of  assault.  Thus  those  guilty 
of  crimes  of  blood  show  the  highest  figures,  followed  closely  by 
thieves. 

In  Italy  alcoholism  of  the  parents  is  much  less  frequently  a 
cause  of  insanity  than  of  crime,  being  found  in  the  case  of  17% 
of  the  insane  but  in  22%  of  those  imprisoned  at  Aversa  for  long 
terms.  Legrain  observed  that  precocity  is  the  first  character- 
istic of  alcoholic  heredity.  He  found  children  who  were  alco- 
holics even  at  four  years.  Another  characteristic  is  the  impossi- 
bility of  withstanding  the  effects  of  alcohol.  Thus  a  father  had 
been  a  drinker  for  seven  years  without  having  his  brain  affected, 
while  his  son  was  thrown  into  a  delirium  by  two  days'  orgy. 
Further,  alcohoHc  heredity  manifests  itself  by  an  imperious 
need  of  larger  and  larger  doses  of  alcohol.  All  these  charac- 
teristics are  frequently  met  in  criminals. 

1  "  Deg6n6rescence  Sociale  et  Alcoolisme,"  Paris,  1875. 


170 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§76 


§  76.   Age  of  Parents 

MaiTO,  in  investigating  this  subject,  has  come  to  the  follow- 
ing conclusions : 

"Among  criminals  against  property  the  children  of  young 
parents  abound,  except  in  the  case  of  swindlers,  among  whom 
they  are  rare.  Swindling  demands,  in  fact,  dissimulation  and 
artfulness,  rather  than  physical  quickness  and  force,  which  are 
the  gifts  of  youth,  as  the  former  qualities  are  the  properties  of 
a  maturer  age." 

He  found  descent  from  elderly  parents  very  numerous  in  the 
case  of  those  committing  crimes  against  persons,  appearing  in 
the  case  of  52.9%  of  the  homicides,  while  the.  percentage  for 
the  general  population  is  only  17.  On  the  other  hand,  only 
3%  of  this  class  of  criminals  were  found  to  have  youthful 
parents.  Among  those  punished  for  assaults,  old  and  also  very 
young  parents  were  much  more  numerous  than  in  the  general 
population  (40%  and  13.5%  respectively).  This  is  easy  to 
comprehend  when  we  remember  that  callousness  is  as  much  a 
preparation  for  brawling  and  insurrection  as  excess  of  vivacity. 
Among  ravishers,  on  the  other  hand,  the  proportion  of  elderly 
fathers  falls  to  30%;  but  there  is  also  a  higher  number  of  elderly 
mothers  than  normal.  Marro,  taking  21  as  the  beginning  of 
maturity  for  women  and  37  as  the  beginning  of  decadence, 
arrives  at  the  following  table  of  percentages  of  criminal,  normal, 
and  insane  persons,  according  to  the  mother's  age  at  their  birth: 
Age  of  Mother 


Immature 

Mature 

Decadent 

Murderers 

6.4% 
21.2% 
15.6% 
27.2% 
19.4% 
22.5% 
20.0% 
17.9% 
12.1% 
18.5% 
12.8% 
20.0% 

54.8% 
57.5% 
59.3% 
63.6% 
61.1% 
64.5% 
62.5% 
64.1% 
14.2% 
63.7% 
76.4% 
58.8% 

38.7% 
15.1% 
25.0% 
9.0% 
19.4% 
12.9% 
17.5% 
17.9% 
13.6% 
17.9% 
10.7% 
21.1% 

Guilty  of  assault 

Ravishers 

Highway  robbers 

Burglars 

Pickpockets 

House  thieves     

Thieves 

Swindlers 

General  average  of  criminals    . 
Normal 

Insane  

§76] 


HEREDITY 


171 


The  law  observed  for  the  fathers  in  the  different  classes  of 
delinquents  holds  good  for  the  mothers  also.  The  percentage 
of  elderly  mothers,  as  of  elderly  fathers,  is  especially  high  with 
murderers  and  raAdshers,  though  in  the  case  of  the  latter,  to  a 
more  limited  extent  for  both  parents.  Both  fathers  and  mothers 
are  frequently  young  in  the  case  of  those  guilty  of  assault  and 
theft,  and  especially  is  this  true  with  highway  robbers.  Marro 
has  studied  the  conduct  in  school  of  917  pupils,  with  reference 
to  the  age  of  their  parents,  with  the  following  results: 


Conduct  of  Children  in  School 


Age  of  parents 

Good 

Medium 

Bad 

Under  26  (father)    .... 
From  26  to  41  (father)  .    . 
Over  41  (father)      .... 
Under  22  (mother) .... 
From  22  to  37  (mother)    . 
Over  37  (mother)   .... 

44% 

47% 

51% 

53.9% 

48.3% 

41.3% 

31% 

34% 

31% 

28.3% 

32.2% 

41.3% 

23% 

17%       ^ 

16% 
17.7% 
18.4% 
17.2% 

The  maximum  of  bad  and  the  minimum  of  good  children  are 
to  be  found  where  the  father  is  young,  but  on  account  of  the 
mildness  and  docility  of  character  belonging  to  women,  espe- 
cially in  youth,  the  greatest  proportion  of  good  children  are 
to  be  found  among  those  born  of  young  mothers. 

With  regard  to  pupils  whose  parents  both  belong  to  the  same 
age  period  the  following  results  are  reached: 


Conduct  op  Pupils 

Age  of  parents 

Good 

Medium 

Bad 

Immature 

39% 
40% 
41% 

39% 
35% 

41% 

21% 

Mature 

15% 

Decadent 

16% 

Marro  found  that  fewer  delinquents  than  normal  persons  had 
parents  belonging  to  the  same  age  period,  there  being  63%  of 


172  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  77 

the  former  to  70%  of  the  latter.  In  the  case  of  pupils  the  max- 
imum of  intelligence  and  the  minimum  of  good  conduct  were 
found  where  both  parents  were  very  young. 

The  age  of  complete  development  of  the  parents  gives  the 
maximum  of  good  conduct  and  the  same  proportion  of  intelli- 
gent children  as  when  the  mother  is  of  full  age.  In  the  period 
of  decadence  of  the  two  parents,  both  good  conduct  and  intelli- 
gence are  less  often  found  than  in  the  preceding  period. 


§  77.  Sjmthesis 

Of  all  nervous  anomalies  the  most  typical  as  a  sign  of  degen- 
eracy, aside  from  cretinism,  is  the  neurosis  of  the  criminal.  This 
recalls  the  phenomenon  that  was  so  striking  in  the  history  of 
the  Juke  family,  the  excess  of  vigor  and  fecundity  in  the  earlier 
generations,  neutralized  in  later  generations  by  child-mortality, 
and  finally  giving  place  to  complete  sterility,  such  as  occurs  in 
the  case  of  "freaks"  and  too  violent  crosses.  Penta  counts 
among  the  signs  of  degeneracy  found  in  the  born  criminal  a 
great  fecundity  rendered  futile  through  the  speedy  dying  out 
of  the  offspring.  Of  104  brothers  of  criminals  whom  he  studied, 
70  died  at  an  early  age.  Of  100  parents  of  criminals,  53  showed 
an  exaggerated  fecundity  and  23  a  partial  sterility.  Of  46 
criminals,  10  showed  exaggerated  and  31  restricted  fecundity. 
In  studying  the  figures  of  Marro  and  Sichart  we  find  that  epi- 
lepsy is  more  common  with  the  parents  of  thieves;  suicide  with 
those  of  incendiaries;  alcoholism  with  those  of  thieves  and 
ravishers;  and  insanity  with  the  parents  of  incendiaries.  We 
have  seen  from  the  Juke  family  that  males,  especially  the  eldest, 
are  more  often  affected  by  a  criminal  heredity  than  females, 
and  illegitimate  than  legitimate  children,  the  relations  being 
inverted  in  the  case  of  pauperism,  in  which  organic  weakness 
plays  a  greater  part.  We  have  seen  that  in  heredity,  for  normal 
as  well  as  for  criminal  men,  the  influence  of  the  father  exceeds 
that  of  the  mother.  Thus  Marro  found  the  diseases  given  below 
to  have  their  hereditary  influence  from  the  paternal  or  maternal 
side  in  the  following  ratios: 


§77] 

HEREDITY 

173 

From  father 

From  mother 

Alcoholism 

7.0% 

6.5% 

21.0% 

6.5% 

.      5.0% 

3.1% 
5.0% 

18.0% 
3.2% 

10.0% 

Insanity 

Diseases  of  spinal  cord 

"         "  heart 

Phthisis 

Here  the  mothers  lead  only  in  the  last. 

In  the  parents  of  homicides  vicious  tendencies  are  found 
with  23%  of  the  fathers  and  only  7%  of  the  mothers;  of  those 
guilty  of  assault,  20%  of  the  fathers  are  of  evil  character  and 
16%  of  the  mothers.  We  may  say  that  the  mother  has  the 
power  of  transmitting  her  emotional  characteristics  to  her  chil- 
dren more  than  her  intellectual  characteristics.  These  con- 
clusions agree  with  the  general  laws  of  heredity  set  forth  by  Or- 
chanski.^  He  shows  that  heredity  being  a  function  of  the  organ- 
ism of  the  parents,  it  corresponds  at  any  given  moment  to  the 
energy  of  their  other  functions  and  to  their  general  physical 
condition.  Each  of  the  parents  shows  a  tendency  to  transmit 
his  own  sex,  and  the  one  that  prevails  is  the  one  nearest  the 
period  of  maturity. 

Resemblance  to  the  father  prevails,  but  more  in  the  case  of 
boys  than  girls.  The  same  principle  holds  true  for  structure, 
although  the  boys  show  more  variability,  the  girls  more  stability. 
If  one  of  the  parents  is  diseased  there  is  a  tendency,  stronger  in 
the  case  of  the  father,  to  transmit  the  disease  to  children  of  the 
same  sex  as  the  parent  affected.  This  phenomenon  shows  itself 
especially  in  the  case  of  neuropathic  parents,  phthisical  par- 
ents reversing  the  relationship.  Transmission  of  disease,  conse- 
quently, is  progressive  with  the  father,  regressive  with  the 
mother;  the  pathological  condition  of  the  father  tends  to  repeat 
itself  in  the  children.  Morbid  heredity  depends,  then,  upon  two 
factors,  —  the  sex  of  the  parent  and  the  intensity  of  the  morbid 
condition.  Males  inherit  diseases  from  both  parents  and  in 
greater  intensity,  having  a  tendency  to  transform  functional 


1  Orchanski,  "L'Eredit^  delle  Famiglie  Malate,"  Turin,  1896. 


174  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§77 

disorders  into  organic  ones;    while  females  show  the  opposite 
tendency. 

To  sum  up:  the  organic  type  is  constantly  being  fixed  by 
heredity.  The  children  themselves  have  a  large  part  in  the 
manifestation  of  heredity,  by  the  fact  that  they  can  assimilate 
more  or  less  actively  the  hereditary  characteristics.  Hereditary 
influences  are  not  all  manifested  at  any  given  moment,  or  once 
for  all.  They  are  latent  in  the  organism  and  manifest  themselves 
gradually  throughout  the  whole  period  of  development.  Every- 
thing organic  is  subject  to  the  general  laws  of  heredity;  the 
characteristics  inherited  by  any  part  of  the  organism  follow  the 
general  course  of  the  development  of  that  organ,  and  reaches  its 
highest  point  at  the  period  of  the  organ's  greatest  development. 
The  antagonism  between  the  influence  of  the  father,  which  favors 
variability  and  individuality,  and  that  of  the  mother,  which 
tends  to  preserve  the  type,  has  already  been  observed  in  the 
determination  of  the  sex  of  the  ofiFspring.  The  same  contest 
goes  on  in  the  matter  of  transmitting  disease,  which  the  mother 
diminishes  by  transmitting  her  own  diseases  in  milder  form  and 
combating  the  morbid  tendencies  of  the  father.  There  is  the 
same  difference  between  the  parts  that  the  male  and  female 
children  play  in  inheriting,  as  there  is  in  that  which  the  father 
and  mother  play  in  transmitting  hereditary  characteristics. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

AGE  —  PRECOCITY 

§  78.  Age  —  Precocity 

ONE  of  the  few  striking  differences  between  crime  and  in- 
sanity is  found  in  the  part  played  by  age.  A  glance  at  the 
following  tabular  comparison  between  nearly  equal  numbers  of 
insane,  delinquent,  and  normal  persons  shows  that  criminals 
are  most  numerous  at  the  ages  between  20  and  30,  at  which 
ages  the  number  of  normal  persons  and  of  insane  is  much  lower, 
while  the  latter  are  most  numerous  between  30  and  40. 


Italians 

English 

AUSTKIANS 

Age 

Nonnal 

Insane 

Criminals 

Criminals 

Criminals 

Under  20    .    .    . 
20  to  30.    .    .    . 
30  "  40  .    .    .    . 
40  "  50  .    .    .    . 
50  "  60  .    .    .    . 
Over  60  ...    . 

20,011 

43.55% 
17.01% 
14.32% 
10.67% 
7.89% 
6.56%,  1 

20,011 

6.18% 

2.34% 

26.21% 

22.19% 

14.02% 

9.34%  1 

26,590 

12.9% 
45.7% 
28.8% 
11.6% 
3.8% 
0.8%  « 

23,768 

25.10% 

42.40% 

16.80% 

8.40% 

4.20% 

2.0%  » 

12,786 

10.4  % 
42.6  % 
27.67% 
12.1  % 
5.9% 
12.4  %< 

1  Lolli,  "Statistica  del  Manicomio  di  Imola,"  1874. 

2  Cardon,  "Statistica  delle  Carceri,"  Rome,  1871. 
'  Mayhew,  op.  cit. 

*  "Die  Oesterreichen  Strafanstalten,"  Vienna,  1874. 


It  will  be  noted  that  from  the  age  of  40  on,  the  percentage  of 
the  insane  is  twice  that  of  normal  individuals  and  criminals; 
while  these  latter  after  the  age  of  50  are  less  than  half  as  nu- 
merous relatively  as  normal  persons  of  that  age. 

A  more  detailed  analysis  shows  that  the  maximum  of  crim- 
inality is  found  at  ages  ranging  from  15  to  25  years.    In  England 


176 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§78 


the  proportion  of  juvenile  crime  is  declining,  and  the  percentage 
of  criminals  under  21  will  be  seen  to  be  less  than  the  percentage 
of  the  normal  population  falling  within  this  age  group,  while 
from  22  to  30  the  criminal  percentage  is  double  the  normal.^ 

In  Austria  one-sixth  of  the  convicts  are  between  14  and  20 
years  of  age,  and  four-sixths  between  21  and  40. 

Of  1477  criminals  condemned  to  death  in  France: 

107  were  between  16  and  30 
534     "  "        30    "    40 

180     "  "        40    "    60 

69     "     60  or  over 

Of  46  criminals  studied  by  me,  35  had  commenced  their 
criminal  career  at  the  following  ages: 


1  at  4  years 

5  at  10  years 

3  at  13  years 

2  "  7     " 

4  "  11     " 

3  "  14     " 

6  "  8     " 

3  "  12     " 

7  "  15     " 

1  "  9     " 

Twelve  others  confessed  that  they  had  run  away  from  home  to 
escape  either  punishment  or  work.  Ten  per  cent  of  the  inmates 
of  the  reform  school  at  Turin  admitted  freely  that  they  had 
learned  to  steal  before  12,  not  from  necessity,  but  led  by  the  en- 
couragement and  instructions  of  their  companions.  In  the  hun- 
dred criminals  investigated  by  Rossi  and  myself  we  found  35  who 
had  begun  to  drink  between  the  ages  of  2  and  10,  and  of  these 
25  drank  only  brandy;  6  had  become  addicted  to  the  practice 
of  masturbation  before  the  age  of  6,  and  13  had  had  sexual 


In  England 

Criminals 

General  population 

12  and  under 

13  to  16 

1.1% 
3.2% 
18.1% 
32.4% 
21.0% 
13.1% 
3.3% 

13.5% 
22.5% 
9.59% 
16.6% 
12.8% 
10.0% 
7.48% 

17  to  21 

22  to  30 

31  to  40  

41  to  50  

51  to  60  

(L.  Levy,  "Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society,"  1882.) 


§  79]  AGE  —  PRECOCITY  177 

intercourse  before  the  age  of  14/  —  all  of  which  shows  great  pre- 
cocity in  vice. 

Marro  found  that  of  his  462  criminals  18%  had  become  de- 
linquents before  the  age  of  13.  Manzoni  has  very  well  hit  off 
the  principal  source  of  this  early  leaning  toward  crime,  namely, 
the  mania  to  pass  as  full-grown;  in  his  famous  novel  he  says: 
"Gervais,  on  account  of  having  had  a  hand  in  something  that 
savored  of  crime,  thought  he  had  become  a  man  like  the  others." 
Marro,  in  his  studies  of  the  conduct  of  pupils  in  the  schools, 
found  that  there  were  two  periods  especially  marked  by  bad 
conduct,  —  the  first  between  11  and  13  years  of  age,  and  the 
second  between  16  and  17. 

Precocity  in  crime  points  to  the  fact  that  criminality,  much 
more  than  insanity,  is  an  inherited  characteristic.  This  re- 
minds us  that  precocity  is  one  of  the  distinguishing  features  of 
savage  peoples,  —  a  new  proof  of  the  atavistic  origin  of  crime. 
In  this  connection  certain  customs  of  the  nature-peoples  are 
interesting.  Thus  the  young  men  in  certain  African  tribes,  upon 
attaining  their  majority,  strip  themselves  and  withdraw  to  the 
woods,  where  they  remain  until  they  have  killed  some  one. 

We  may  also  certainly  ascribe  to  atavistic  influence  an 
institution  like  that  of  the  scuonero  in  Naples,  which,  for  the 
fifteen-year-old  boys,  means  to  play  the  tyrant,  to  carry  clubs  or 
revolvers,  to  have  love  affairs,  and  to  put  parents  and  policemen 
in  their  proper  places.  It  is  thus  a  sort  of  juvenile  "Camorra," 
in  which  the  highest  honor  belongs  to  him  who  has  wounded  or 
killed  some  one.  Another  proof  of  the  same  influence  is  found 
in  the  Sicilian  word  "omerta"  which  means  either  manliness 
or  brigandage. 

§  79.  Supposed  Scale  of  Crime 

In  one  case  I  have  found  a  true  gradation  in  the  character  of 
the  thefts  of  a  young  criminal,  who  began  as  a  boy  by  stealing 
4  sous  to  buy  a  top.  He  then  stole  8  sous,  then  1  franc,  and 
finally  3  francs.    But,  in  general,  the  ascending  scale  of  crime  is 

*  Rossi,  "Una  Ccnturia  di  Criminali,"  1885. 


178  CRBIE:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§79 

imaginary,  for  many  enter  the  criminal  course  by  the  great  door 
of  homicide  and  rape,  while  the  most  atrocious  crimes  are  often 
the  most  precocious.  There  was  found  one  day  in  Milan  an 
old  man  riddled  with  82  wounds,  who  was  believed  at  first 
to  have  been  the  victim  of  an  atrocious  act  of  revenge.  It  was 
discovered  that  his  murderers  were  five  youths  of  from  15  to  19 
years,  who  had  committed  this  horrible  crime  for  the  purpose 
of  getting  money  for  a  visit  to  a  brothel,  and  that  all  had  wanted 
to  have  a  part  in  stabbing  the  victim. 

All  great  criminals  have  given  proof  of  perversity  in  their 
youth,  especially  at  the  age  of  puberty  and  sometimes  even  be- 
fore. This  was  true  of  Bonsegni  at  18  years  of  age,  of  Boulot  at 
17,  and  of  the  Marquise  de  Brinvilliers  at  18.  At  7j^  Dombey 
was  already  a  thief,  and  added  sacrilege  to  his  theft  at  12.  At  3 
Crocco  tore  out  the  feathers  of  living  birds;  Lasagne  cut  out 
the  tongues  of  cattle  at  11;  at  the  same  age  Cartouche  stole 
from  his  schoolmates;  while  Mme.  Laf argue,  as  a  child  of  10, 
strangled  fowls.  Feuerbach  tells  of  a  parricide  who  had  taken 
great  deUght  as  a  child  in  making  hens  jump  about  after  he  had 
put  out  their  eyes. 

"The  tendency  to  theft,"  says  Locatelli,  "shows  itself  in  ex- 
treme youth,  beginning  with  little  pilferings  at  home  and  in- 
creasing gradually.  Murderers,  on  the  contrary,  become  such 
all  at  once,  frequently  at  a  tender  age.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
children  below  the  age  of  puberty  who  have  already  committed 
homicide  are  less  rare  than  second-story  thieves  of  the  same 
age- 
In  the  prisons  of  Paris  there  are  no  less  than  2000  youths 
from  16  to  21  years  of  age,  996  of  whom  are  incarcerated  for 
murder  or  theft,  and  the  assassinations  committed  by  these 
young  criminals  are  marked  by  the  most  horrible  ferocity, 
'^''^'-illot  and  Gille  killed  their  benefactress  with  the  aid  of  their 
of  th'    h  ^^^  ^^^  °^  ^^^  fingers  to  get  her  rings.    The  youngest 

bands^  oT"^  "^  ^^  ^"^  *^^  °^^^^*  ^^'  ^^^^  °^  ^^^  Parisian 
-«  I,  J  ,  .?.'^^  assassins  included  a  girl  who  had  scarcely 
reached  nubility,  i 

'  I^'Haufisom^e^  "L'Enfance  k  Paris,"  1876. 


§80]  AGE  — PRECOCITY  179 

Pipino,  Bagnis,  Quartery,  Verzeni,  Moro,  and  Prevost  began 
with  assassination.  Prevost  later  was  an  irreproachable  agent 
of  police  for  21  years.  Martin  killed  his  own  wife,  having  pre- 
viously been  perfectly  reputable.  Charles  IX  was  cruel  from 
childhood. 


§  8o.   Criminality  at  Different  Periods  of  Life 

Each  period  of  life  has  its  own  form  of  criminality,  as  Quetelet, 
Guerry,  and  Messedaglia  have  very  well  shown.  Youth  and 
old  age  are  found  in  Austria  to  furnish  the  greatest  number  of 
sexual  crimes,  33%.  Guerry  also  finds  the  two  highest  points 
for  these  crimes  to  be  between  16  and  25,  and  between  65  and 
70  years.  In  England  the  greatest  number  of  crimes  contrary 
to  nature  are  committed  by  persons  between  50  and  60;  but 
doubtless  what  is  taken  for  crime  at  this  age  may  often  be  the 
result  of  creeping  paralysis  and  senile  dementia.  Another  ten- 
dency which  is  observable  in  youth  is  that  toward  arson  (30.8^ 
in  Austria);  and  in  this  case  also  it  is  to  be  noted  that  mania 
before  the  age  of  puberty  is  apt  to  take  the  form  of  pyromania. 
A  similar  observation  may  be  made  with  regard  to  theft;  but 
Quetelet  observes  that  if  the  tendency  toward  theft  is  one  of 
the  first  to  show  itself,  it  also  makes  itself  felt  throughout  the 
whole  life,  and  is  common  to  every  age-period.^ 

In  the  period  of  manhood  the  predominant  crimes  are  mur- 
ders, homicides,  infanticides,  abortions,  and  rape,  amounting  in 
Austria  to  about  80%.  At  a  riper  age  there  is  an  increasing 
number  of  libels,  frauds,  breaches  of  trust,  crimes  contrary  to 
nature,  instances  of  blackmail,  and  of  aid  given  to  criminals.  In 
old  age  there  are  to  be  observed  crimes  contrary  to  nature,  aid 
to  criminals,  breach  of  trust,  swindling,  and,  what  furnishes  a 
new  analogy  with  the  crimes  of  youth,  arson.  We  may  get  a 
more  exact  notion  of  the  distribution  of  crime  according  to  age 
from  the  following  table,  in  which  is  given  the  number  of  per- 
sons out  of  1000  of  the  same  age  who  were  indicted  in  France 
between  1826  and  1840: 2 

1  Quetelet,  "Physique  Sociale,"  p.  325. 

*  After  Guerry,  "Statiatique  Morale  de  la  France,"  p.  84. 


180 


CRIME:    ITS  .CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§80 


< 

1 

Pi 

< 

1 

'S 

'a 

bo 

a 

'i 

T5 

S 

"a! 

3 

Under  16 

0.4 

0.1 

0.1 

0.2 

0.1 

0.3 

0.1 

0.1 

0.3 

16-21 

16.0 

14.1 

10.9 

7.3 

6.0 

3.4 

3.8 

4.6 

12.2 

21-25 

18.4 

14.3 

13.5 

15.3 

14.2 

9.5 

10.1 

9.1 

15.8 

25-30 

14.7 

12.6 

20.1 

16.6 

14.1 

13.9 

11.8 

8.8 

14.6 

80-35 

13.7 

11.1 

18.7 

14.0 

15.3 

12.2 

13.4 

11.0 

13.3 

35-40 

10.7 

8.8 

11.8 

11.1 

10.8 

11.3 

12.8 

11.7 

10.8 

40-45 

6.6 

7.5 

6.8 

8.3 

9.7 

13.0 

11.5 

11.0 

8.9 

45-50 

6.4 

6.4 

6.8 

7.3 

8.2 

9.4 

9.7 

10.0 

7.0 

50-55 

4.5 

4.1 

4.7 

6.8 

6.3 

6.5 

7.6 

9.3 

5.1 

55-60 

3.1 

4.4 

3.3 

4.5 

5.2 

4.8 

5.5 

8.3 

3.9 

60-65 

2.6 

4.8 

2.9 

4.0 

4.3 

4.8 

5.4 

6.9 

3.4 

65-70 

1.8 

5.2 

1.6 

3.0 

3.2 

5.1 

3.9 

5.4 

2.5 

70-80 

1.2 

4.5 

0.8 

1.7 

1.7 

3.0 

3.0 

3.8 

1.6 

Over  80 

0.4 

2.1 

0.5 

0.9 

0.6 

2.8 

1.4 

0.6 

y 


\ 


CHAPTER  XIV 


SEX PROSTITUTION 


§  8l.    Sex 

ALL  statistics  show  that  women  are  much  less  criminal  than 
men,  and  this  will  be  even  more  striking  if  we  regard  those 
guilty  of  infanticide  as  outside  of  the  regular  criminal  class.  In 
Austria  female  criminals  do  not  reach  14%  of  the  total;  in 
Spain  they  are  under  11%,  while  in  Italy  they  are  only  8.2%. 
Bringing  together  the  different  data  ^  we  get  the  following  table, 
showing  the  part  played  by  women  in  crime  in  different  coun- 
tries of  Europe: 


Men 

Women 

Number  of  men 
to  1  woman 

Italy  (1885-89)   .... 
Great  Britain  (1858-64) 
Denmark  and  Norway  . 
HoUand 

84.1 
79.0 
80.0 
81.0 

15.9 
21.0 
20.0 
19.0 

5.2 
3.8 
4.0 
4.5 

Belgium 

France  

82.0 
83.0 

18.0 
17.0 

4.5 
4.8 

Austria 

83.0 

17.0 

4.8 

Baden   

84.0 

16.0 

5.8 

Prussia 

85.0 

15.0 

5.7 

Russia 

91.0 

9.0 

10.1 

Buenos- Ayres  (1892)      . 
Algeria  (1876-80)    .    .    . 
Victoria  (1890)    .... 
New  South  Wales  .    .    . 

96.4 
96.2 
91.7 
85.5 

3.6 

3.8 

8.3 

14.5 

27.1 

25.0 

11.0 

5.8 

Bringing  together  the  figures  for  all  classes  of  delinquents 
convicted  in  Italy  during  the  years  1885-89,  we  get  the  follow- 
ing yeariy  averages: 

*  A  complete  bibliography  will  be  found  in  Lombroso  and  Ferrero's 
"Female  Offender." 


182  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§81 

For  the  men  For  the  women 

186.825  54,837 

If,  however,  we  take  account  of  the  fact  that  the  cases  passed 
upon  by  the  justices  of  the  peace  are  the  least  serious,  those  which 
come  before  the  Assizes  are  the  most  serious,  and  those  which 
come  before  the  Tribunals  are  of  a  degree  between  the  two,  we 
shall  see  that  the  female  offenders  are  distributed  in  an  inverse 
ratio  to  the  gravity  of  the  crime.  Thus  for  each  100  men  the 
following  number  of  women  were  convicted  in  the  three  classes 
of  courts: 

Justice  courts 21.8  women 

Tribunals 9.2       "^ 

Assizes      6.0 

Almost  all  the  statistics  show  that  women  take  up  a  life  of 
crime  later  than  men.  Oettingen  places  the  climax  of  female 
criminality  between  the  25th  and  30th  years,  while  Quetelet 
calls  it  about  the  30th  year.  With  men  the  maximum  of  crim- 
inality is  reached  at  24.  In  Italy  in  the  years  from  1885  to 
1889,  for  each  100  crimes  committed  by  male  delinquents  of 
the  various  age  periods,  the  following  were  committed  by  female 
delinquents:^ 


Justices  of 
the  peace 

Tribimals 

Assizes 

Under  14      

22.5 

10.1 

0.0 

14-21    

22.2 

9.0 

3.3 

21-50    

21.6 

8.4 

5.5 

Over  50 

23.1 

10.5 

11.1 

We  see,  accordingly,  that  for  all  classes  of  crimes  female 
criminality  reaches  its  highest  point,  as  compared  with  that  of 
men,  at  the  most  advanced  age;  that  is  to  say,  when  the  special 
characteristics  of  sex  have  been  effaced  by  age,  and  when  pros- 
titution no  longer  offers  a  career.  The  second  highest  period  of 
female  criminality  is  to  be  found  in  the  age  below  14,  when  the 

»  Rencoroni,  "La  Criminality  Femminile"  (Arch,  di  Psichiatria,  1893)- 


§82] 


SEX  —  PROSTITUTION 


183 


sex  characteristics  are  not  yet  fully  developed.^  This  is  not 
true,  however,  of  the  gravest  offenses;  for  among  the  girls  below 
14  there  was  not  one  convicted  at  the  Assizes,  while  of  the  boys 
of  that  age  there  were  4650  convicted  out  of  10,000,000. 

In  Germany  3.8%  of  the  female  offenders  and  2.6%  of  the 
male  are  over  60  years  old.  For  every  100  criminal  men  over 
60  there  were  25.4  criminal  women  of  the  same  age,  while  be- 
tween the  ages  of  21  and  40  there  were  only  19.6  criminal  women 
to  100  men.  During  the  years  1876-80  among  the  juvenile  de- 
linquents there  were  16.3  girls  under  16  to  100  boys,  and  17.7 
girls  under  21  to  100  boys  of  like  age.  Female  delinquency  has, 
then,  one  of  its  high  points  during  youth,  a  fact  to  be  explained 
by  prostitution  among  girls  not  yet  of  age.  According  to 
Parent-du-Chdtelet  15%  of  the  French  prostitutes  were  over 
17  and  under  21  years  of  age,  while  according  to  Guerry  24%  of 
the  London  prostitutes  were  under  20.  ~— __^ 


§  82.   Specific  Criminality 

Women  as  criminals  are  naturally  active  in  other  spheres 
than  those  which  men  occupy.     In  Austria  women  are  most 

^  In  Italy  in  the  years  1871-72  juvenile  criminals  of  the  two  sexes 
were  divided  into  age  groups  as  follows: 


Of  100  girls 

Of  100  boys 

Under  10 

11  to  14 

25.5 
43.5 
27 

4 

18 
57 

15  to  18    

23 

Over  18 

2 

In  Austria  out  of  100  criminals  of  either  sex  there  were: 


Age 

Women 

Men 

10  to  20 

12.7 
42.1 
24.5 
14.0 
7.3 
2.9 

10  6 

20  to  30 

39  6 

30  to  50 

27  8 

50  to  60 

12  5 

60  to  70 

' 

5.7 

Over  70 

1.6 

I 


184 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§82 


often  guilty  of  abortion,  bigamy,  libel,  participation  in  crimes, 
arson,  and  theft;  they  are  more  rarely  guilty  of  homicide  and 
forgery.  In  France  their  principal  crimes  are  infanticide,  abor- 
tion, poisoning,  parricide,  maltreating  of  children,  domestic 
thefts,  and  arson.  In  England  they  are  beginning  to  be  more 
often  guilty  of  passing  counterfeit  money,  perjury,  and  libel; 
and  homicide  also  is  slowly  increasing  there.  In  studying  the 
situation  in  Italy,  Rencoroni  {op.  cit.)  arrived  at  the  following 
results: 


Crimes  (assizes) 


Average  of 
three  years 

To  1,000,000 

Men 

Women 

Men 

Women 

9.2 

0.6 

5.472 

0.036 

345.8 

24.0 

22.822 

1.440 

114.6 

1.0 

6.876 

0.066 

251.0 

15.6 

17.6 

1.16 

10.8 

51.6 

0.618 

3.086 

144.0 

49.2 

75.504 

2.952 

4.4 

5.4 

0.264 

0.324 

899.2 

34.2 

59.346 

2.052 

473.2 

5.8 

35.630 

0.348 

910.8 

60.8 

60.060 

4.012 

:    22.8 

1.4 

1.368 

0.084 

92.2 

18.6 

5.520 

1.116 

42.2 

3.8 

2.652 

0.228 

Women  to 
100  men 


Crimes  against  the  State 
Forgery  and  commercial 

crimes 

Vagrancy,  etc 

Sexual  crimes 

Abortion,  infanticide    .    .    . 
Homicide,  murder    .... 

Poisoning 

Assault 

Highway  robbery     .... 

Theft 

Fraud      

Receipt  of  stolen  goods    . 
Arson 


0.5 

6.9 
0.8 
5.16 

476.8 
3.4 

122.7 
3.8 
1.2 
6.6 
6.3 
20.2 
8.6 


We  saw  above  that  on  an  average  6  women  are  condemned 

at  the  Assizes  for  each  100  men.    The  figures  are  higher  for  the 

following  crimes: 

Number  of  women 
to  100  men 

Receiv-ing  stolen  goods 20.2 

Poisoning 122.7 

Abortion,  infanticide      476.8 

Arson 8.6 

These  four  crimes,  then,  seem  to  have  a  closer  connection  with 
the  feminine  nature. 

That  women  less  often  are  engaged  in  highway  robbery, 
murder,  homicide,  and  assault  is  due  to  the  very  nature  of  the 


\ 


§83]  SEX  — PROSTITUTION  185 

feminine  constitution.  To  conceive  an  assassination,  to  make 
ready  for  it,  to  put  it  into  execution  demands,  in  a  great  num- 
ber of  cases  at  least,  not  only  physical  force,  but  a  certain  energy 
and  a  certain  combination  of  intellectual  functions.  In  this  sort 
of  development  women  almost  always  fall  short  of  men.  It 
seems  on  the  other  hand  that  the  crimes  that  are  habitual  to 
them  are  those  which  require  a  smaller  degree  of  physical  and 
intellectual  force,  and  such  especially  are  receipt  of  stolen  goods, 
poisoning,  abortion,  and  infanticide.  I  specify  intellectual  force 
and  not  education,  for  it  is  well  known  that  poisoners  are 
often  well  educated  persons.  Quetelet  has  already  remarked 
that  these  differences  proceed  not  so  much  from  slighter  per- 
versity of  character  as  from  a  more  retired  way  of  hfe,  which 
gives  less  opportunity  for  such  crimes  as  highway  robbery;  and 
from  a  smaller  degree  of  strength  and  intelligence,  on  account  of 
which  women  commit  fewer  murders  and  crimes  requiring  the 
use  of  the  newspapers.  But  in  domestic  crimes  they  equal,  and 
sometimes  even  exceed,  the  men.  In  poisoning  they  reach  91% 
and  in  house- theft  60%,  to  say  nothing  of  abortion  and  infanti- 
cide. If  we  add  that  the  great  number  of  sexual  offenses  com- 
mitted by  men  are  not  only  equalled  but  surpassed,  at  least  in- 
the  eyes  of  the  psychologist,  by  prostitution  on  the  part  of  the 
women,  and  that  in  the  more  civilized  countries  and  periods  the 
criminality  of  women  continually  increases  until  it  approaches 
that  of  men,  we  find  that  the  analogy  between  the  two  is  greater 
than  would  have  been  believed  possible  at  first  sight. 

§  83.  Prostitution 

The  comparative  infrequency  of  the  arrest  of  women  for 
vagrancy  ^  is  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  women  are  less  given 
to  drink,  in  part  to  the  fact  that  they  are  less  employed  in  trade, 
and  finally  to  the  fact  that  in  youth  prostitution  completely 
takes  the  place  of  crime.^    With  this  unhappy  profession  idle- 

'  The  American  reader  will  have  to  remember  that  in  the  United  States 
as  Dugdale  points  out,  "vagrancy"  as  applied  to  a  woman  is  frequently 
only  an  "official  euphonism  for  prostitution." — Transl. 

2  For  the  complete  demonstration  of  this  see  the  work  of  Lombroso 
and  Ferrero  cited  above. 


186  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  83 

ness  and  vagabondage  are  inseparably  bound  up.  If  cases  of 
prostitution  are  included  in  the  criminal  statistics  the  two  sexes 
are  at  once  placed  on  an  equality,  or  the  preponderance  may 
even  be  thrown  on  the  side  of  women.  According  to  Ryan 
and  Talbot  there  is  1  prostitute  to  each  7  women  in  London, 
and  in  Hamburg  1  to  each  9.  In  Italy,  in  the  great  centers, 
they  form  18%  to  33%  of  the  female  population  of  like  age.^ 
In  some  countries  the  proportion  has  doubled  and  in  some 
increased  even  tenfold.  In  Berlin  the  number  of  prostitutes 
increased  from  600  in  1845  to  9653  in  1893.  In  1876  Du  Camp 
placed  the  number  of  secret  prostitutes  in  Paris  at  20,000. 

We  have  seen,  and  shall  see  more  and  more,  how  the  physical 
and  moral  characteristics  of  the  delinquent  belong  equally  to 
the  prostitute,  and  how  great  the  sympathy  is  between  the  two 
classes.  Both  phenomena  spring  from  idleness,  misery,  and 
especially  from  alcoholism.  Both  are  connected,  likewise,  with 
certain  organic  and  hereditary  tendencies,  as  Dugdale  has  dem- 
onstrated in  connection  with  the  Juke  family. 

"When  I  compare  the  data  brought  together  in  technical 
writings,"  says  Locatelli,  "  with  the  results  of  my  own  experience, 
I  am  convinced  that  those  authors  have  fallen  into  error  who 
allege  that  the  principal  cause  of  prostitution  is  abandonment, 
or  the  misery  into  which  many  of  the  young  girls  of  the  prole- 
tariat are  plunged.  Prostitution,  in  my  opinion,  like  theft, 
springs  from  vicious  natural  tendencies  of  certain  individuals. 
Lack  of  education,  abandonment,  poverty,  and  bad  example 
can  be  considered  at  most  as  secondary  causes;  just  as  family 
care  and  instruction  may  serve  as  salutary  checks  upon  evil 
tendencies.  The  tendency  to  prostitution  proceeds  from  a  fun- 
damental lack  of  the  sense  of  modesty,  which  often  manifests 
itself  at  the  same  time  as  the  absence  of  all  sexual  feeling,  for 
many  of  these  unfortunates  are  of  an  apathetic  temperament. 
They  are  automatons,  who  concern  themselves  with  nothing  and 
have  almost  no  feeling;  in  their  many  and  fleeting  relationships 
they  show  no  preference.  If  they  ever  show  favor  to  some  par- 
ticular lover,  they  do  it,  not  from  sympathy,  but  because  it  is 
the  custom  of  their  associates;  they  show  themselves  as  indif- 
ferent to  homage  as  to  the  most  brutal  abuse." 

This  apathy,  it  is  true,  is  interrupted  from  time  to  time  by  vio- 
lent and  fugitive  fits  of  passion;  ^  but  here  also  there  is  a  striking 

^  Castiglioni,  "Sulla  Prostituzione,"  Rome,  1871. 
'  Lombroso  and  Ferrero,  op.  cit. 


§84]  SEX  — PROSTITUTION  187 

resemblance  to  the  criminal,  with  whom  apathy,  insensibility, 
violent  and  transitory  passion,  and  idleness  are  dominant 
characteristics.^  But  even  if  we  hold  strictly  to  legal  definition 
and  oflScial  statistics,  it  is  plain  that  a  part  of  the  army  of  pros- 
titutes must  be  enrolled  as  criminals  also.  Guerry  observed 
that  in  London  80%  of  the  female  criminals  under  30  years  of 
age  came  from  among  the  prostitutes,  and  7%  of  those  over 
that  age.  Furthermore,  prostitution,  like  female  criminality, 
tends  to  increase  with  increasing  civilization  and  approach  to 
male  criminality  in  amount.  In  London  in  1834  the  female 
criminals  were  18.8%  as  numerous  as  the  male,  and  in  1853 
25.7%;  while  in  Spain  the  figure  was  as  low  as  11%,  in  France 
20%,  in  Prussia  22%,  in  Scotland  23%.  In  Austria  in  general 
the  female  criminality  is  14%  of  the  male,  but  in  Vienna  it  is 
25%. 

But  aside  from  these  facts  many  other  grave  reasons  make 
us  suspect  that  the  criminality  of  women  is  greater  than  the 
statistics  show.  The  crimes  mentioned  above  to  which  women 
are  particularly  addicted  are  just  those  which  are  most  easily 
concealed  and  most  rarely  lead  to  trial.  To  this  may  be  added 
the  well  known  fact  of  the  greater  obstinacy  and  intensity  of 
criminality  when  it  appears  in  a  woman.  Thus  in  America 
delinquent  girls  have  shown  themselves  more  incorrigible  than 
boys.  However,  it  must  be  remembered  in  this  connection 
that  female  criminals  show  fewer  marks  of  degeneracy  than 
criminal  men. 

§  84.  Civilization 

In  both  sexes,  but  especially  in  the  case  of  women,  we  see 
that  the  more  serious  crimes  regularly  increase  as  civilization 
decreases.  On  the  other  hand,  the  relation  of  the  degree  of 
civilization  with  vagrancy  and  similar  offenses  and  with  sexual 
crimes  is  not  so  definite.  The  following  table  gives  the  ratio 
which  the  frequency  of  the  various  crimes  in  southern  and 
central  Italy  bears  to  that  of  the  more  civilized  part  of  the 
kingdom : 

*  Lombroso,  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 


188  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§84 

NuMBEB  OF  Crimes  to  1  committed  in  Northern  Italy 


Central  Italy 

Southern  Italy 

By  men 

By  women 

By  men 

By  women 

Murder  and  homicide  .    .    . 

5 
3 

H 
K 
Vs 

4 

2 
5 

2 

12 
6 

4 

M 

6 

24 
11 

Highway  robbery      .... 
Theft 

5 

3 '5 

Arson      

6 

Abortion  and  infanticide  are  more  frequent  at  an  early  age 
the  more  civilized  a  country  is,  but  more  frequent  at  an  ad- 
vanced age  the  less  civilized  it  is.  This  appears  to  be  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  more  civilized  a  country  is,  the  more  will  fear 
of  public  dishonor  induce  a  young  girl  who  becomes  pregnant 
to  take  criminal  means  to  save  her  reputation.  But  where  these 
crimes  are  most  frequent  between  21  and  40,  it  is  not  a  clinging 
to  reputation  so  much  as  an  unfortunate  custom  that  is  the 
cause.  It  may  be  remarked  in  this  connection  that  abortion 
is  a  widespread  practice  among  savages. 

The  number  of  persons  sentenced  by  the  "correctional  tri- 
bunals" in  France  increased  from  1831  to  1880  by  180%  for 
the  men  and  110%  for  the  women.  The  increase  of  school 
instruction  in  France,  then,  left  the  female  criminality  even 
lower  than  before  in  proportion  to  that  of  the  men.  While  in 
1888  among  the  recidivists  1%  of  the  men  had  a  higher  edu- 
cation and  9%  an  elementary  education,  none  of  the  women 
had  a  higher  education  and  only  5%  an  elementary  one;  of 
the  men  30%  were  absolutely  illiterate,  and  47%  of  the  women. 
Of  244  crimmals  transported  in  1887-88,  30%  of  the  men  and 
39%  of  the  women  were  illiterate,  53%  of  the  men  and  51%  of 
the  women  could  read  and  write,  15%  of  the  men  and  10%  of 
the  women  had  an  elementary  education,  and  2%  of  the  men 
but  none  of  the  women  had  a  higher  education.  The  same 
phenomenon  is  equally  to  be  found  in  Germany.  In  1854  23% 
of  the  crimes  were  committed  by  women,  in  1878  only  16%; 


§84]  SEX  — PROSTITUTION  189 

so  that  in  this  period  there  was  a  constant  diminution  in  female 
dehnquency.  In  the  country  the  infanticides  are  more  frequent, 
and  in  the  cities  the  abortions.  Thus  in  Germany  in  1888  out 
of  172  infanticides  only  1  took  place  in  Berlin,  while  of  216 
abortions  23  occurred  in  Berlin.  In  France  75%  of  the  infanti- 
cides take  place  in  the  country,  and  60%  of  the  abortions  in  the 
cities. 

In  many  of  the  more  highly  ci\Tlized  countries,  such  as  Eng- 
land and  Austria,  female  delinquency  appears  for  a  moment  to 
be  approaching  that  of  men;  but  this  is  due  to  the  influence 
of  petty  offenses,  drunkenness,  vagrancy,  etc.,  while  as  regards 
crimes  proper,  the  criminality  of  women  is  much  less  than  that 
of  men  and  tends  to  diminish  rather  than  increase.  In  coun- 
tries still  barbarous,  female  delinquency  is  infinitely  less,  so 
that  in  Bulgaria  Laveleye  found  almost  no  women  in  the  prisons. 
If  we  look  at  the  effect  of  great  cities  upon  each  crime  in  par- 
ticular we  see  that  assaults,  highway  robberies,  and  thefts  are 
more  numerous  in  the  great  cities  than  in  the  small  towns  or 
in  the  country.  In  Berlin,  for  example,  the  increased  density 
of  the  population  is  a  manifest  cause  of  the  increase  of  crimes 
committed  by  women;  in  fact,  21%  of  the  crimes  in  the  capi- 
tal are  committed  by  women,  as  against  16%  for  the  Empire 
at  large.  In  England  during  the  years  1859  to  1863  for  every 
100  men  convicted  at  the  Assizes  there  were  respectively  35, 
36,  38,  33,  31,  and  32  women;  but  among  the  arrests  made  by 
the  London  police  during  about  the  same  period  (1854-62) 
there  were  57  women  to  100  men,  while  in  Liverpool  the  num- 
ber was  69,  and  in  Dublin  84. 

Fewer  crimes  against  property  are  committed  by  married 
women  (and  men)  than  by  unmarried;  but  of  crimes  in  general 
the  married  woman  above  30  years  of  age  commits  more  than 
the  unmarried,  though  a  similar  statement  cannot  be  made  with 
regard  to  married  men  until  they  have  passed  the  age  of  70,  — 
a  fact  which  may  be  attributed  to  crimes  against  the  person, 
against  the  state,  etc. 


190 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§85 


§  85.  Recidivists 
In  France  the  number  of  recidivists  has  increased  as  follows ; 
Pebcentage  op  Cbiminals  who  ABE  Recidivists 


Year 

Men 

Women 

1851-55    

1856-60    

1861-65    

1866-70    

1871-76    

1877-80    

36 
30 
42 
45 
51 
53 

16 
16 
17 
17 
19 
21 

Male  criminals  are,  then,  much  more  apt  to  become  recidi- 
vists than  women,  and  this  tendency  increases  with  advancing 
civilization,  as  the  figures  show;  and  this  may  fairiy  be  main- 
tained, notwithstanding  the  allowance  that  must  be  made  for 
error  because  of  the  fact  that  nowadays  recidivists  are  much 
more  easily  recognized  than  formerly.  It  is  well  known  that 
prisoners  in  penitentiaries  relapse  into  crime  almost  immediately 
upon  their  release,  or  at  least  within  a  short  period  of  years,  as 
shown  in  the  following  table: 

Released  Convicts  becouing  Recidivists 


Year 

Men 

Women 

1851-55      

1856-60  

1861-65  

1866-70  

1871-75      

1876 

1877 

37% 
34% 
37% 
40% 
39% 
40% 
39% 
45% 

26% 
23% 
24% 
25% 
22% 
26% 
23% 
24% 

1878 

In  Germany  the  results  are  a  little  different  (Starke).  Al- 
though in  1869  there  was  a  somewhat  smaller  proportion  of 
recidivists  among  the  female  criminals,  the  number  rose  gradu- 


§85] 


SEX  —  PROSTITUTION 


191 


ally,  and  by  1882  had  reached  the  percentage  shown  by  the 
men. 

Recidivists  in  Gebmant 


Year                                      Men 

Women 

Total 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1872 

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877-78    

1878-79    

1879-80    

1880-81    

1881-82    

71.44% 
74.00% 
80.38% 
77.29%' 
80.66% 
77.98% 
79.03% 
79.66% 
78.47% 
79.13% 
77.13% 
76.42% 
78.76% 

64.98% 
74.22% 
78.35% 
74.16%> 
77.46% 
77.16% 
84.26% 
78.17% 
76.76% 
75.80% 
75.19% 
77.77% 
78.86% 

76^74% 
80.13% 
77.84% 
79.85% 

79.42% 

78.25%, 

78.61% 

76.84%' 

76.47% 

78.87% 

Messedaglia  has  shown  that  repeated  relapses  into  crime  are 
more  frequent  with  Austrian  women  than  single  relapses,  while 
in  the  case  of  male  criminals  the  two  are  about  equal.  The 
same  thing  is  observed  in  Prussia,  where  16%  of  the  female 
cases  are  of  women  arrested  for  the  first  time,  17%  are  womeri 
arrested  after  the  first  relapse,  24%  after  the  6th,  and  30% 
after  7  or  more  relapses. 

In  conclusion  we  may  affirm: 

1st,  Female  delinquency  is  only  a  fourth  or  a  fifth  that  of 
men,  and  only  one-sixteenth  if  we  consider  simply  serious  crimes. 

2d,  Female  criminality  reaches  its  highest  point,  as  compared 
with  male  criminality,  in  advanced  age,  the  period  of  youth 
coming  second,  and  middle  life  last.  Taking  the  criminality 
of  women  absolutely,  without  reference  to  that  of  men,  we  find 
the  maximum  in  old  age  good  only  for  the  more  serious  crimes.^ 
In  both  sexes  the  proportion  of  crimes  committed  in  youth  is 
very  high. 

3d,  In  comparing  the  criminality  of  the  two  sexes  we  find 
women  participating  more  often  in  crimes  which  require  less 
bodily  strength,  less  culture,  and  less  intellectual  energy. 

1  According  to  MajT  the  maximum  of  criminality  is  found  in  men 
between  18  and  21,  and  in  women  between  30  and  40. 


192  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§85 

4th,  In  both  sexes  youth  leads  in  crimes  resulting  from  sud- 
den anger,  and  maturity  in  crimes  that  require  premeditation. 
With  women,  however,  the  period  of  maturity  leads  in  murder, 
homicide,  and  arson.  Middle  life  (from  21  to  50  years)  exceeds 
the  two  others  in  the  total  number  of  crimes. 

5th,  The  figures  for  crime  in  general,  as  well  as  for  each  class 
of  crime,  for  each  sex,  and  in  each  country,  are  in  general  very 
consistent.  In  Italy,  however,  among  the  men  serious  crimes 
are  decreasing,  minor  offenses  increasing  among  both  sexes,  but 
in  the  case  of  the  women  serious  offenses  are  on  the  increase 
also. 

6th,  Abortion  and  infanticide  appear  to  be  committed  by 
women  more  from  feelings  of  shame  and  less  from  ancient  cus- 
tom, the  more  civilized  the  country.  Thus  in  northern  Italy 
these  crimes  are  more  common  in  youth,  in  southern  Italy  they 
are  committed  by  the  mature. 

7th,  The  effect  of  great  cities  upon  the  increase  of  crime  is 
more  marked  in  the  case  of  women,  and  shows  itself  especially 
in  the  multiplication  of  assaults,  highway  robberies,  and  thefts. 

8th,  Prostitution  largely  takes  the  place  of  crime  for  women, 
thus  explaining  why  women  seem  less  criminal  than  men,  and 
also  giving  a  probable  reason  why  female  criminality  is  greatest 
in  old  age,  when  prostitution  no  longer  offers  a  profession. 


CHAPTER  XV 

OVIL   STATUS  —  PROFESSION  —  UNEMPLOYMENT 

§  86.  CivU  Status 

WE  know  that  the  age  of  maximum  criminality  is  between 
15  and  25,  and  that  the  majority  of  female  delinquents 
are  prostitutes  or  minors;  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  add,  then, 
that  it  is  the  unmarried  who  show  the  greatest  criminality. 
Taking  out  those  who  have  not  yet  reached  marriageable  age, 
we  get  from  the  statistics  for  Italy  for  the  years  1890  to  1894, 
the  following  number  of  persons  sentenced  out  of  1000  in  the 
same  condition  in  life :  unmarried,  48.9;  married,  29.7;  widow- 
ers and  widows,  14.3.  In  Austria  the  proportion  of  the  un- 
married among  the  criminals  is  35%  greater  than  among  the 
rest  of  the  population,  while  the  proportion  of  married  crim- 
inals is  13%  less  than  that  of  married  persons  in  general.  Wid- 
owers sentenced  for  crime  are  a  smaller  part  of  the  criminal 
class  by  5Q%  than  are  widowers  in  the  normal  population. 
Similar  relations  obtain  among  the  insane,  and  for  similar 
reasons.  According  to  Verga  there  is  1  insane  person  to  474 
unmarried  persons  between  the  ages  of  20  and  60,  and  1  to 
1418  married  persons.  Upon  the  basis  of  the  statistics  for 
1841-57  Girard  found: 

1  insane  person  to  2169  unmarried 
1      "  "       "  7094  married 

1      "  "       "  4572  widowers 

With  regard  to  sex  Lunier  found  for  the  years  1856-62: 

1  insane  p>erson  to  2629  men,  2931  women,  unmarried 
1      "  "       "  4754     "     5454       "        married 

1      "  "       "  3421  widowers,  3259  widows 

It  is,  however,  to  be  noted  that  among  criminals,  as  well 
as  among  the  insane,  widows  are  much  more  numerous  than 
widowers,  a  fact  that  Messedaglia  in  Austria  and  Lolli  in  Italy 


194  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§87 

explain  by  the  greater  number  of  widows  to  be  found  in  the 
population.  It  has  been  noted  in  Austria,  Italy,  and  France 
that  married  men  and  widowers  who  have  children  commit 
offenses  much  less  frequently  than  the  childless.  The  contrary 
is  true  according  to  Guislain  and  Castiglioni,  however,  with 
regard  to  the  frequency  of  insanity,  a  fact  explainable  by  the 
anxiety  occasioned  by  the  needs  of  a  large  family.^ 

§  87.   Professions 

It  is  rather  difficult  to  determine  the  influence  of  occupation, 
on  account  of  the  system  of  classification  and  nomenclature 
commonly  employed  in  statistics,  —  a  system  which,  however 
useful  for  economists,  is  hardly  suited  to  the  purposes  of  the  an- 
thropologist; as,  for  example,  when  there  are  grouped  together 
innkeepers  and  merchants,  soldiers  and  agricultural  laborers, 
metal-workers  and  cabinet-makers,  or  artists  and  professional 
men.  The  comparison  becomes  additionally  difficult  when  the 
statistics  of  recruits  and  the  census  statistics  each  have  their 
own  mode  of  grouping.  According  to  the  latest  Italian  statistics 
the  following  numbers  of  convictions  (to  the  1000)  occurred  in 
the  various  classes  of  occupation: 

Agriculture 8.9 

Manufacturing 7.4 

Commerce 12.8 

Public  service  and  the  liberal  professions     ....  3.5 

Domestic  service 3.6 

The  greater  criminality  among  merchants  may  be  explained 
by  the  greater  activity  of  business  life,  as  well  as  to  the  increase 
of  this  class  since  the  last  census  in  1881.  They  furnish  not  only 
the  large  number  of  commercial  frauds  that  would  naturally 
be  expected,  but  also  a  considerable  number  of  libels  and  other 
similar  crimes.  The  offenses  most  common  among  the  agricul- 
tural population  are  theft  (26%)  and  assault  (22%).  This 
class  furnishes  only  a  very  small  number  of  the  other  forms  of 
crime.  Among  factory-workers  also  there  are  a  large  number 
of  convictions  for  theft  and  assault,  but  in  comparison  with  the 
agricultural  population  they  show  more  of  a  tendency  toward 
*  Verga,  "Se  U  Matrimomo,"  MUan,  1870. 


87] 


CIVIL  STATUS,  ETC. 


195 


resistance  to  the  officers  of  the  state  (11%),  and  toward  libels 
and  frauds. 

If  we  go  on  now  to  take  up  certain  occupations  in  detail,  we 
shall  see  that  the  highest  proportion  of  persons  convicted  is 
found  among  pedlars  (44  to  the  1000),  and  of  these  relatively 
large  numbers  are  for  theft  (30%),  resistance  to  officers  (20%), 
and  sexual  offenses.  Butchers  also  show  a  large  number  of 
convictions  (37  to  the  1000), being  guilty  principally  of  resistance 
to  the  authorities  and  frauds  in  business.  Then  come  draymen 
and  cab-drivers  (26  to  the  1000),  who  are  arraigned  most  fre- 
quently for  resistance  to  the  authorities,  and  for  crimes  against 
property  and  persons.  The  learned  professions  and  domestic 
service  contribute  only  a  small  quota  of  criminals  (2.94  and 
3.93  to  the  1000).  In  the  first  class  forgery  is  the  most  common 
crime,  and  house- theft  in  the  second.  Marro  found  in  Turin 
the  smallest  number  of  delinquents  (2  to  the  1000)  among  the 
huntsmen,  priests,  students,  school-teachers,  fishermen,  and 
umbrella-makers.  A  fairly  small  number  (8  to  the  1000)  he 
found  among  the  lithographers,  marble-workers,  carriage- 
makers,  gardeners,  masons,  and  tanners;  and  a  somewhat 
higher  one  (14  to  the  1000)  among  the  brokers,  writers,  weavers, 
and  hairdressers,  the  last  being  guilty  of  sexual  crimes  almost 
exclusively. 

The  following  table  gives  the  percentages  of  certain  pro- 
fessions among  criminals  compared  with  the  percentages  of 
the  same  professions  in  the  normal  population: 


Among 
criminals 

In  normal 
population 

11.0  % 
6.9% 

8.3% 
7.3% 
0.33% 

2.5% 

Bakers 

1.6% 

Locksmiths 

Shoemakers 

2.3% 
3.2% 

Students 

3.1% 

Bakers  and  masons  have  a  strong  representation,  because  they 
are  paid  daily  and  have  no  need  of  a  long  apprenticeship.  The 
occupations  carried  on  in  the  city  which  involve  most  exposure 


196  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§87 

to  alcoholism  (cooks,  shoemakers,  innkeepers),  which  bring  the 
poor  into  contact  with  the  rich  (domestic  servants),  or  which 
furnish  the  means  of  committing  crime  (masons  and  locksmiths), 
furnish  a  large  contingent  of  criminals,  and  an  even  higher 
proportion  of  recidivists.  A  philological  confirmation  of  part 
of  the  above  is  found  in  the  derivation  of  coquin  (rascal),  from 
the  Latin  coquus  (cook).  The  occupations  which  bring  men 
less  into  contact  with  their  fellows,  such  as  those  of  peasants 
and  boatmen,  furnish  the  smallest  proportion  of  criminals,  and 
also  of  recidivists.  In  France  the  greatest  tendency  to  sexual 
crimes  is  found  among  the  shoemakers,  —  a  fact  to  be  referred 
to  their  alcoholism,  and  to  the  effect  upon  the  genital  organs  of 
their  position  when  at  work.  The  same  attitude  toward  crime 
in  the  case  of  the  various  occupations  is  found  in  the  other 
civilized  countries.  The  following  table  gives  the  number  of 
persons  (to  the  million)  convicted  in  Austria,  classified  accord- 
ing to  occupation: 

Persons  engaged  in  agriculture 

Proprietors  and  tenants 46.8  ) 

Stewards 53.2  \  49.3 

Workmen 51.6  ) 

Persons  engaged  in  manufacturing  and  commerce 

Entrepreneurs 23.8  ) 

Agents 13.0  [  37.7 

Workmen 45.5  ) 

Other  occupations 

Property  owners  and  stockholders 15.9 

Learned  professions 6.1 

Domestic  servants 133.6 

Other  occupations 26.0 

Persons  without  occupation  (including  women  and  children) 4.8 

General  population  of  Austria,  excluding  those  without  occupation     .    .  49.9 

Leaving  out  of  account  the  persons  without  profession,  as 
including  the  women  and  children,  the  smallest  contingent  of 
crime  is  furnished  by  the  property-owners  and  members  of  the 
learned  professions. 

If  we  divide  crimes  of  violence  into  those  which  are  pre- 
meditated and  those  which  are  not,  we  get  the  follow^ng  num- 
bers (to  the  milhon  inhabitants)  for  the  various  occupations: 


§87] 


CIVIL  STATUS,  ETC. 


197 


Landed  proprietors 

Agricultural  laborers 

Manufacturers 

Workmen  in  factories 

Property  owners  and  stockholders 

Liberal  professions 

Domestic  servants 


Premeditated 


Not  pre- 
meditated 


17.3 

14.4 
8.9 

18.2 
8.2 
3.3 

24.7 


25.3 
26.2 
12.7 
24.3 
6.2 
1.4 
11.2 


Infanticide 


4.2 
11.0 
2.2 
3.0 
1.4 
1.4 
97.7 


In  France  the  various  occupations  are  grouped  in  a  manner 
different  from  that  employed  in  Austria,  and  they  are  also  given 
less  in  detail.  In  the  group  of  liberal  professions  are  included 
army  officers,  capitalists,  and  stockholders  (a  very  numerous 
class  in  France).  The  industrial  and  commercial  classes  are 
not  distinguished,  nor  are  country  proprietors  distinguished 
from  farm-laborers.  During  the  years  1876-80  there  were  the 
following  numbers  of  convictions  (to  the  million  inhabitants) 
for  crimes  of  \dolence: 

Persons  without  occupation,  beggars,  vagrants,  prostitutes, 

inmates  of  almshouses 59.2 

Domestic  servants 25.9 

Agricultural  class      24.3 

Industrial  and  commercial  class 18.1 

Liberal  professions 10.6 

In  all  the  groups,  aside  from  those  without  occupation,  we 
find  a  complete  analogy  with  the  Austrian  statistics,  and  may 
draw  the  conclusion  that  analogous  social  conditions  produce 
analogous  results  in  different  countries. 

In  France,  according  to  Yvernes  there  were  in  1882  the 
following  indictments  for  each  100,000  males  of  the  same  oc- 
cupation: 

Proj>erty  owners  and  stockholders 6 

Public  oflBcers      12 

Farmers 16 

Farm  servants  and  laborers      24 

Industrial  workers      25 

Liberal  professions 28 

Transportation  and  merchant  marine 35 

Commercial  class 38 

Personal  servants 49 

Occupations  not  classified  or  unknown 54 


198  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§87 

According  to  Tarde's  last  researches/  the  number  of  persons 
convicted  in  France,  to  10,000  of  each  class  of  occupation,  is  as 

follows : 

Agriculture 0.84 

Manufacturing      1.32 

G>mmerce      1-00 

In  France,  as  in  Italy,  the  agricultural  class  furnishes  a 
smaller  contingent  of  criminals  than  the  manufacturing  or  com- 
mercial classes.  We  note  here  the  enormous  difference  between 
the  number  of  persons  indicted  in  the  country  and  of  those 
indicted  in  the  city,  a  fact  certainly  due  to  the  harmful  en- 
vironment in  which  the  latter  hve.  According  to  earlier  re- 
searches of  Fayet,  the  agricultural  population,  which  was  53% 
of  the  whole,  in  1847  furnished  only  32%  of  the  crime.  It  is 
well  to  note  in  this  connection  that  agricultural  servants,  though 
exposed  to  great  poverty,  furnish  only  from  4%  to  5%  of  the 
crime,  while  servants  in  the  city  furnish  7%.  This  latter  class, 
with  the  innkeepers,  furnish  one- third  of  the  infanticides, 
one-sixth  of  the  thefts,  one-ninth  of  the  poisonings,  doubtless 
because  of  the  loss  of  the  sense  of  personal  dignity  that  the 
state  of  dependence  always  brings  in  its  train.  I  emphasize 
this  especially  because  alcohohsm  is  rare  among  domestic  ser- 
vants, and  hence  they  are  less  exposed  to  one  of  the  principal 
causes  of  crime.  Fayet  observes,  however,  that  the  majority 
of  parricides,  108  out  of  164,  spring  from  the  country  popula- 
tion. Fayet  further  finds  a  considerable  number  of  offenses 
against  modesty  among  masons  and  painters,  of  rapes  among 
cab-drivers,  and  of  infanticides  among  hat-makers  and  laundry- 
workers  (these  last  doubtless  because  of  the  large  number  of 
women  so  employed).  Among  merchants  crimes  against  prop- 
erty are  especially  abundant,  as  they  also  are  among  profes- 
sional and  moneyed  men;  among  the  latter,  unfortunately, 
these  crimes  are  increasing,  especially  with  the  notaries  and 
attorneys,  and  in  a  less  degree  with  property  owners.  In 
France  in  the  years  1833-39  there  occurred  the  following 
numbers  of  crimes  for  each  10,000  men  over  26  years  of  age 
in  the  specified  classes : 

»  "Actee  du  Congrls  d'Antropologie  Criminelle  de  Geneve,"  1897. 


§  87]  CIVIL  STATUS,  ETC.  199 

Priests 10 

Solicitors 62 

Advocates 74 

Notaries 145 

Bailiffs 162 

Joly  rightly  remarks  that  their  knowledge  of  the  law,  their 
privileges,  education,  and  well-being,  ought  to  ensure  that  the 
professional  classes  would  manifest  few  criminal  tendencies. 
Yet  on  the  contrary  they  are  corrupted  by  success  or  by  the 
parasitic  character  of  their  work,  which  tempts  them  to  make 
the  most  gain  out  of  their  profession,  instead  of  firing  them 
with  noble  ambition.  He  notes  that  up  to  the  year  1881  the 
number  of  notaries  annually  removed  from  office  was  from  18 
to  25,  but  that  in  1882  it  was  40,  in  1883  41,  and  m  1884  58. 
After  a  slight  decrease  in  the  next  two  years  the  number  in 
1887  leaped  up  to  75.  According  to  the  French  criminal  statistics 
the  number  of  notaries  indicted  is  43  to  the  10,000,  while  there 
is  about  1  indictment  to  the  10,000  in  the  general  population. 
The  criminaHty  of  notaries  is  accordingly  43  times  greater  than 
that  of  the  population  as  a  whole.  Notaries  and  bailiffs  fur- 
nish more  criminals  than  individuals  of  the  same  sex  and  age 
in  the  other  higher  professions.  A  tenth  of  the  murders,  a 
seventh  of  the  homicides,  an  eighth  of  the  parricides,  an  eighth 
of  the  rapes  upon  girls  under  15,  and  an  eighteenth  of  all  other 
crimes,  have  been  committed  by  professional  men  or  men  of 
wealth,  while  these  classes  constitute  but  an  eighteenth  part  of 
the  total  population.^  This  proves  clearly  the  corrupting  influ- 
ence of  higher  education,  and  at  the  same  time  shows  how 
little  influence  intimidation  has  in  overcoming  temptation,  since 
advocates  and  bailifiFs  know  better  than  anyone  else  the  penal- 
ties which  the  law  threatens. 

In  Prussia  the  liberal  professions  furnish  2.2%  of  the  popula- 
tion and  4%  of  the  criminals;  domestic  servants  furnished  2% 
of  the  population  and  12%  of  the  criminals.^ 

The  data  ^sith  regard  to  Russia  that  are  accessible  to  me  have 
reference  to  9229  crimes  of  violence  committed  in  the  years 
1875  to  1879.    Below  is  given  a  comparison  of  these,  as  regards 

'  Fayet,  "Journal  des  Economistes,"  1847. 
«  Oettingen,  "  Moralstatistik,"  p.  37. 


200 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§87 


distribution  by  occupation,  with  the  statistics  for  Austria  and 
France : 


.  .  ,.  }  Proprietors  .  .  . 
Agriculture  j  ^yorkmen  .... 
Manufactures        i  Proprietors    . 

and  commerce  (  Workmen  .    . 

Day-laborers 

Liberal  professions 

Domestic  servants 

Occupation  not  determined  .  . 
Prostitutes  and  persons  without 

occupation 


Russia 


Per  cent 


47.5 

12.8 

7.5 


60.3 


i\''-' 


7.7 
1.8 


6.7 
2.0 


Austria 


Per  cent 


18 
31 
3.3 
13.6 


;J[50.0 
\ 


16.9 


0.2 
19.6 

8.8 

4.9 


France 


Per  cent 


50.7 
30.0 


6.0 


Thus,  while  in  Austria  in  the  space  of  three  years  there  were 
condemned  for  crimes  of  violence  4  persons  belonging  to  the 
liberal  professions,  in  Russia  in  a  period  of  five  years  there  were 
condemned  for  the  same  crimes  165  persons,  of  whom  88  were 
in  the  employ  of  the  government,  59  were  ecclesiastics,  lawyers, 
doctors,  or  technicians,  and  19  were  men  of  learning,  students, 
or  painters.  The  explanation  of  this  excessive  number  of  crimes 
of  violence  among  the  liberal  professions  in  Russia  is  to  be  found 
in  the  political  persecution  and  sectarian  fanaticism  which  on 
the  one  hand  provoke  crime,  and  on  the  other  are  its  natural 
consequence. 

As  regards  the  criminality  of  women,  we  find  that  the  highest 
figures  are  to  be  found  among  those  engaged  in  commerce,  and 
that  the  most  numerous  crimes  here  are  swindling,  fraud,  libel, 
and  assault.  The  women  engaged  in  factories  and  workshops 
are  less  given  to  theft  than  the  women  in  the  country,  plainly 
because  of  the  opportunity  for  field  theft  which  the  latter  have. 
As  regards  the  specific  criminality  of  women  in  the  different 
occupations,  it  may  be  noted  that  the  midwives  show  the  great- 
est number  convicted  of  abortion  (3  out  of  100) ;  and  that  those 
employed  in  domestic  service  come  next  to  country  women  in 
the  number  of  thefts  (55  to  the  100). ^  However,  the  figures 
1  Bosco,  "La  Delinquenza  Femminile,"  Rome,  1897. 


§88]  CIVIL  STATUS,  ETC.  201 

are  too  limited  for  us  to  draw  any  very  definite  and  general 
conclusions,  and  in  addition  the  great  number  of  prostitutes 
confuses  all  our  investigations,  for  it  is  certain  that  a  large 
part  of  the  country  women  arrive  at  criminal  practices  by  the 
road  of  prostitution,  carried  on  either  openly  or  under  the 
guise  of  service  in  the  city.  "Frequenting  large  cities,"  writes 
Parent-du-Chatelet,  "is  harmful  to  women  from  the  country, 
who  appear  from  the  statistics  to  give  themselves  up  to  prosti- 
tution in  direct  proportion  to  their  nearness  to  great  centers." 
Half  of  the  prostitutes  of  Paris  come  from  among  the  seam- 
stresses and  ironers;  a  third  from  the  milliners,  saleswomen, 
and  hairdressers;  a  twentieth  from  the  laundresses  and  factory- 
workers;  and  a  few  from  among  the  actresses. 


§  88.   Soldiers 

It  is  important  to  make  a  separate  study  of  the  very  high 
criminality  of  the  soldier  class,  which,  according  to  Hausner,* 
is  25  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  population  as  a  whole.  But 
there  is  certainly  an  error  here,  for  the  investigator  has  not  ex- 
cluded from  the  civil  population  the  old  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren. At  any  rate  we  find  very  different  figures  for  Italy.  If 
we  study  the  crimes  of  the  soldiers  in  Italy  in  the  year  1872, 
we  shall  find  that  most  of  the  charges  brought  are  for  actions 
which  are  not  criminal  outside  of  the  army,  such  as  insubordi- 
nation and  malingering.  We  find,  then,  one  person  convicted 
to  112  soldiers.  Now  if  we  compare  this  figure  with  the  pro- 
portion of  persons  of  the  same  age  (between  21  and  31  years  old) 
who  were  found  guilty  in  the  general  population  (1  to  172),  we 


I 

Number  in  population  to  each 
p>erson  convicted 

Civilians 

Soldiers 

In  Austria 

"  Holland 

"  France 

856 
4330 
7460 

78 
173 
139 

202  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§88 

shall  see  that  while  the  figures  for  the  military  are  worse,  the 
difference  is  not  so  very  great;  and  even  this  difference  becomes 
less  when  we  leave  out  of  account  the  women  in  the  civil  pop- 
ulation, since  their  criminality  is  80%  less  than  that  of  the 
men. 

But  even  if  we  must  admit  that  there  is  a  real  difference  (as 
seems  to  be  the  case  in  Germany),  it  is  explained  by  the  fact 
that  the  soldier  continually  has  arms  ready  at  hand,  is  at  the 
age  most  inclined  to  crime,  is  unmarried,  largely  idle,  and  forced 
into  close  contact  with  many  individuals  and  in  a  narrow  space 
(from  which  come  the  high  figures  for  rape,  pederasty,  and 
criminal  associations) ;  to  this  may  be  added  in  time  of  war  the 
habituation  to  deeds  of  blood.  Holtzendorff  tells  that  a  mur- 
derer, who  had  been  a  soldier,  excused  himself  by  saying  that 
in  the  Austrian  war  in  1866  he  had  seen  so  many  men  killed 
that  one  more  or  less  seemed  a  small  matter  to  him.  Lucian 
has  said,  "Men  who  follow  war  have  neither  faith  nor  piety." 
A  curious  and  significant  fact  in  connection  with  this  is  fur- 
nished us  by  philology,  namely,  that  many  military  functions 
were  formerly  exercised  in  such  a  criminal  manner  that  they 
have  become  synonymous  with  crime.  Thus  latrones  were  of- 
ficers ad  latus,  aides-de-camp  of  the  king,  but  instead  of  playing 
the  courtier  in  the  fashion  of  the  present,  they  committed  so 
many  depredations  that  their  name  has  become  confounded 
with  "robber."  In  our  day  we  can  hardly  believe  that  "pirate" 
was  a  name  originally  used  for  marines,  or  that  "brigand" 
formerly  meant  simply  a  kind  of  sharpshooter  used  in  attacking 
a  town. 

That  warlike  peoples  are  characterized  by  a  high  degree  of 
cruelty  is  a  fact  that  can  still  be  seen  in  our  own  day,  as  Ham- 
mond has  very  well  shown  in  his  study  of  military  psychology. 
The  cruelty  peculiar  to  the  soldier  is  inspired  partly  by  his  con- 
tempt for  the  civilian  class,  a  contempt  that  has  come  down 
from  ancient  times,  and  partly  by  having  his  excesses  go  un- 
punished. There  are  innumerable  examples  of  such  impunity 
in  Germany,  Russia,  and  Italy.  In  Coblenz  a  lieutenant  killed 
with  his  saber  a  merchant  who  was  passing,  and  was  sentenced 
to  one  year's  imprisonment,  a  sentence  made  even  shorter  by 


§89]  CIVIL  STATUS.  ETC.  203 

pardon;  but  when  the  mother  of  his  victim  complained  of  this 
in  a  violent  letter  she  was  fined  (1894).  In  Berlin  a  soldier, 
named  Laerke,  while  on  guard  duty,  seriously  wounded  two 
workmen;  his  superior  officers  praised  him  highly  for  this  pro- 
ceeding and  promoted  him  (1893).  In  Bologna,  Monteleone, 
and  Aquila  armed  officers  have  attacked  peaceful  citizens;  and 
these  examples  could  be  prolonged  indefinitely.  The  pretended 
chivalrous  magnanimity,  which  is  attributed  to  soldiers,  is  as  for- 
eign to  them  as  it  is  to  the  Middle  Ages,  in  which  it  existed  only 
in  the  imagination  of  the  romantic  school.  There  are,  it  is  true, 
exceptions,  but  their  case  is  no  less  deplorable.  These  are  the 
individuals  whom  the  "service"  has  succeeded  in  making  thor- 
oughly servile,  so  that  they  are  no  longer  capable  of  directing 
their  own  lives,  are  without  individuality  or  originality,  and 
must  always  lean  upon  someone  else,  while  the  nation  from 
which  they  were  drawn  sorely  needs  powerful  arms  and  free, 
strong  hearts. 

But  what  has  most  effect  on  the  disproportion  between  the 
criminality  of  soldiers  and  that  of  civilians,  is  the  smaller  dif- 
ference in  the  former  case  between  the  apparent  criminality,  as 
Messedaglia  calls  it,  and  the  real  criminality.  In  the  army  any" 
crime  is  quickly  brought  to  light  and  promptly  punished,  while 
in  civil  life,  as  is  well  known,  not  half  the  crimes  committed  are 
discovered  and  punished.^ 


§  89.  The  Insane 

The  influence  of  occupation  upon  insanity  is  less  clearly 
demonstrated  than  in  the  case  of  crime;  for  it  is  not  easy  to  find 
statistics  which  concern  themselves  with  both  rich  and  poor, 
since  these  two  classes  are  generally  received  into  different 
asylums.  However,  from  the  French  statistics,  the  complet- 
est  we  have,  we  get  glimpses  of   interesting  analogies  with 

^  Of  233,181  cases  brought  before  the  examining  justices  in  France, 
70,276  had  to  do  with  offenses  of  which  the  authors  were  unknown.  In 
1862-66  in  Bavaria  68%  of  the  crimes  and  54%  of  the  misdemeanors 
remained  unpunished  because  either  the  offenders  were  unknown  or  their 
guilt  insufficiently  proved  (May hew). 


204  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§89 

crime. ^  The  insane  are  more  than  twice  as  numerous  in  the  city 
as  they  are  in  the  country  (223  to  100),  and  men  are  more  often 
affected  than  women  ( 1 32  to  1 00) .  Agriculturists  furnish  the  mini- 
mum of  insanity,  and  the  liberal  professions  the  maximum;  and 
among  these  latter,  artists  and  jurists  show  higher  figures  than 
officials  and  ecclesiastics.  The  investigations  of  Girard  show 
the  great  frequency  of  insanity  among  domestics,  metal  workers, 
and  miners.  According  to  Bini  and  Golgi  it  is  very  common 
among  shoemakers  (1.2%  to  8%),  inmates  of  almshouses,  and 
cooks  (2%  to  5%),  with  a  very  large  number  in  the  liberal 
professions  (5%).  According  to  the  investigations  of  Girard 
and  Baroffio,  the  military  class  gave  the  highest  figures  for 
insanity,  1.4  to  the  thousand.  The  researches  of  Lolly,  which 
are  the  only  ones  for  Italy  that  I  am  acquainted  with,  are  very 
inclusive,  and  show  insanity  to  be  more  common  among  the 
landed  proprietors,  the  well-to-do  classes,  and  the  merchants 
than  among  the  agricultural  classes.  With  this  latter  class  it 
is  less  common  also  than  among  artisans.^ 

^  Lunier,  "Nouveau  Dictionnaire  de  M^decine,"  Paris,  1872;    Girard 
de  Cailloux,  "fitudes  Pratiques  sur  les  Ali^n^s,"  Paris,  1863. 

■  Girard  (Seine,  1852)       ^"""ig^'"^'^' 

1  insane  person  to  each 

Artists 3292  104 

Jurists 544  119 

Literati 1035  280 

Ecclesiastics 706  253 

Physicians  and  pharmacists       1602  259 

Officials 1621  727 

Bankers 2571  5487 

Domestic  servants 609 

Shoemakers  and  tailors     .    .     1807 

Landed  proprietors    ....     5547  3609 

Agriculturists 11,403  18,819 

Soldiers 553  1711 

Miners 132 

Metal-workers 732 

Innkeepers,  etc 1700 

»  According  to  Lolly  the  various  classes  furnish  the  following  per- 
centages to  the  total  population  and  to  the  number  of  the  insane: 

Population  Insane 

Agricultural  class 49.0  %  34.00% 

^'^^^.          ;;       12.3  %  12.90% 

?^"\tf*jc                 2.64%  2.17% 

Landholding           2.78%  6.23% 

Commercial    "       2.70%  1.66% 

Ecclesiastical  "       0.60%  1 37% 


§  90]  CIVIL  STATUS,  ETC.  205 

1  must  add  that  the  occupations  which  accustom  men  to  the 
sight  of  blood  or  to  the  use  of  dangerous  weapons,  such  as  the 
trade  of  the  butcher,  soldier,  etc.,  or  to  a  life  of  social  or  sexual 
isolation,  like  that  of  the  shepherd,  field  guard,  or  priest,  es- 
pecially when  the  exasperation  of  a  forced  chastity  is  added,  — 
such  occupations,  I  say,  call  forth  both  in  the  insane  and  in 
criminals  a  savage  cruelty  in  their  deeds,  which  is  often  ac- 
companied by  abnormal  lubricity.  We  may  note  also  that 
poisonings  are  more  frequently  committed  by  physicians  and 
pharmacists  than  by  any  other  class. 

§  90.  Aversion  to  Work 

In  connection  with  such  investigations  as  the  foregoing,  it  is 
necessary  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  occupation 
claimed  by  the  criminal  is  frequently  only  nominal,  and  his 
real  occupation  is  idleness.  I  have  discovered  in  Turin  a 
strange  pursuit  peculiar  to  criminals,  that  of  counterfeiting  a 
trade.  These  men  pose  as  joiners,  locksmiths,  or  what  not, 
and  provide  themselves  with  the  necessary  tools.  But  these 
are  simply  to  convince  the  police.  Their  work  is  either  all  a 
pretense,  or  just  sufficient  in  amount  to  prevent  their  appre- 
hension for  vagrancy.  They  lack  neither  the  means  nor  the 
opportunity  of  working,  but  only  the  willingness  to  work. 
Sichart  ^  found  that  out  of  3181  prisoners  1347,  or  42.3%,  had 
an  aversion  to  work.  Grouped  according  to  the  various  crimes 
committed,  the  numbers  were  as  follows: 

Total  number  of  prisoners  Those  having  aversion  to  work 

1848  thieves 961,  or  52    % 

381  swindlers 172,  ''^  45    % 

155  incendiaries 48,  "  31    % 

542  sexual  criminals 145,  "  26.7% 

255  perjurers 21,  "     8.2% 

The  importance  of  these  figures  is  still  clearer  when  we  take 
into  account  the  way  they  are  divided  between  what  Sichart 
calls  "occasional  criminals"  ^  and  habitual  criminals.    Of  the 

^  "  Ueber  individuelle  Faktoren  des  Verbrechens,"  in  the  "  Zeitschrift 
fur  die  gesammte  Strafwissenschaft,"  1891. 

2  "Criminels  par  occasion." 


206  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§90 

former  170,  or  19.2%,  showed  an  aversion  to  work,  but  of  the 
latter  1170,  or  51.7%  —  over  two  and  a  half  times  as  many. 
According  to  the  recent  statistics  for  Massachusetts,^  we  see 
that  out  of  4340  convicts,  2991,  or  68%,  had  no  occupation. 
According  to  the  Pennsylvania  statistics,  almost  88%  of  the 
convicts  in  the  penitentiaries  had  never  followed  a  trade,  and 
the  same  was  true  of  683^%  of  the  inmates  of  the  county  jails. 
As  regards  homicides  in  particular,  Frederick  Wines  has  shown 
that  in  1890,  out  of  6958  convicts  guilty  of  this  crime,  5175,  or 
more  than  74%,  had  never  received  any  instruction  in  a  trade.^ 

The  aversion  to  work  shows  itself  also  in  the  occupations 
which  criminals  adopt.  Marro,  having  noticed  that  masons 
furnish  11%  of  the  criminals,  although  they  form  but  3.56%  of 
the  population,  got  an  explanation  from  the  masons  themselves. 
Many  of  them  told  him  that  they  had  given  up  other  trades  and 
taken  up  this,  for  the  reason  that  masons  receive  their  wages 
daily,  without  waiting  for  the  end  of  the  week  or  fortnight; 
which  proves  that  they  follow  this  trade  only  by  caprice.  I 
have  already  shown  that  the  thieves  in  France  are  often  called 
pegre  or  paresseux  (idler),  and  that  the  worst  criminals,  such  as 
Lacenaire,  Lemaire,  and  Cretien,  hated  work  more  than  they 
loved  life.  One  may  study  this  state  of  mind  in  the  psycho- 
logical tables  given  in  the  anthropological-statistical  "Atlas"  of 
Ferri's  "Omicidio,"  where  the  psychology  of  idleness  is  often 
pointed  out.  Thus  a  recidivist,  on  being  asked  if  he  was 
willing  to  work,  replied,  "No,  work  shortens  life."  Another 
said  quite  frankly,  "I  have  worked,  but  only  a  little,  because 
work  tires  you."  Another,  when  asked  why  he  did  not  work, 
excused  himself  by  saying,  "I  am  not  capable  of  it."  Still 
another  said,  "I  have  no  desire  to  work,  so  I  have  to  steal  if 
I  want  money." 

The  frequency  with  which  criminals  change  their  trades  is 
noteworthy.  Of  100  normal  persons  86  were  found  to  have 
followed  always  the  same  occupation,  13  had  changed  once,  and 
1  had  had  three  different  trades.  Among  the  criminals  how- 
ever, the  following  had  changed  their  occupation  two  or  more 
times: 

1  Wright,  op.  cU.  »  Bosco,  op.  at. 


§90]  CIVIL  STATUS,  ETC.  207 

27  out  of  40  murderers 
30    "     "  40  pickpockets 
60    "     "  77  swindlers 

22  "     "  39  highway  robbers 

28  "    "51  persons  guilty  of  assault 
60    "     "  97  thieves 

30    "     "  39  ravishers 

23  "     "  41  other  sexual  criminals 

The  reports  of  the  Elmira  Reformatory  give  the  following 
with  regard  to  the  occupation  of  6635  prisoners: 

Domestic  servants 1694,  or  25.5% 

Common  laborers 3651,  "  55.0% 

Skilled  laborers 974,  "  14.7% 

Without  occupation 320,  "     4.8% 

The  jBgure  for  those  without  occupation  would  be  very  low, 
but  the  report  goes  on  to  add: 

"It  must  be  noted  that  those  who  declare  they  have  a  trade 
are  almost  never  regularly  employed.^  Consequently  the  num- 
ber of  men  entering  the  reformatory,  who  are  incapable  of 
adapting  themselves  to  steady  work,  is  very  great ;  and  so  like- 
wise is  the  number  of  those  who  remain  still  incapable  of  work- 
ing, notwithstanding  the  system  of  moral  stimulation  applied 
to  them,  because,"  so  Superintendent  Brockway  affirms,  "upon 
34%  of  the  prisoners  any  moral  incentive  to  work  is  wasted; 
it  does  not  even  arouse  their  attention." 

For  this  reason  Brockway  advocates  the  use  of  the  lash  and 
corporal  punishment  in  general,  methodically  and  carefully  but 
rigorously  appUed.  He  thus  confirms,  without  being  conscious 
of  it,  the  analogy  between  the  incorrigible  criminal  and  the  sav- 
age, for  the  latter  will  not  work  unless  compelled  to  do  so  by 
violence,  and  will  sometimes  die  under  the  blows  inflicted  upon 
him  before  he  can  make  up  his  mind  to  it.  The  tendency  of 
criminals  to  change  their  trades,  and  their  preference  for  those 
in  which  the  wages  are  paid  daily  and  in  which,  consequently, 
liberty  is  less  trammeled,  prove  to  us  that  the  aversion  of  the 
criminal  for  work  does  not  proceed  so  much  from  an  absolute 
incapacity  for  every  form  of  activity,  as  from  a  distaste  for 
every  form  of  occupation  that  is  regular,  methodical,  and  strictly 
fi[xed  as  to  hours. 

1  "  Nineteenth  Year  Book,  New  York  State  Reformatory  at  Elmira," 
1894,  p.  38. 


208  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  90 

Marro's  figures  here  are  full  of  meaning  and  help  us  to  under- 
stand the  nature  of  the  crinunal's  incapacity  for  work.  This  is 
not  incapacity  for  every  kind  of  activity,  not  absolute  inertia. 
The  criminal  has  to  employ  at  certain  times  a  very  great  degree 
of  activity.  Certain  crimes,  hke  fraud  and  theft,  very  often 
demand  energetic  action.  What  is  repugnant  to  the  criminal 
is  the  regularity  of  the  mechanism  of  modern  society,  that 
gigantic  system  of  cog-wheels  by  which  each  human  being, 
assigned  to  his  place  in  the  clock-work,  must  execute  at  any 
given  instant  the  prescribed  movement.  Criminals,  being  inca- 
pable of  resisting  the  intermittent  caprices  of  a  character  at  once 
inert  and  impulsive,  declare  war  upon  a  society  which  is  not  in 
harmony  with  their  inclinations.  In  the  army  of  labor  the  crim- 
inal is  a  guerrilla.  He  is  capricious  about  undergoing  fatigue, 
and  pretends  that  he  submits  to  it  only  when  he  pleases,  alter- 
nating intense  effort  with  long  periods  of  idleness,  and  always 
refractory  under  the  will  of  another.  In  this  his  character  is 
entirely  like  that  of  the  savage,  who,  though  habitually  inert, 
bestirs  himself  from  time  to  time  and  gives  himself  up  to  the 
most  fatiguing  labors  of  hunting  and  war.  This  is  the  character 
which  Robertson  gives  to  the  American  Indians.     He  says, 

"When  they  undertake  a  hunting  expedition  they  leave  their 
habitual  indolence  and  put  into  use  intellectual  faculties  which 
apparently  commonly  remain  dormant;  they  become  active, 
persevering,  indefatigable." 

Marro  observes  very  truly, 

"Among  uncivilized  peoples  we  find  an  almost  total  incapacity 
for  any  continued  effort.  Steady,  uninterrupted  labor  is  the 
characteristic  of  civilized  man.  The  more  he  is  liable  to  hus- 
band his  physical  strength,  the  more  profitable  his  intelligence 
makes  it,  and  the  more  he  is  able  to  use  it  for  his  own  benefit 
and  that  of  society." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

PRISONS  —  NEWSPAPERS  —  IMITATION  —  LEADERS  —  OTHER 

CAUSES 

§  91.  Prisons 

ONE  of  the  greatest  factors  in  crime  is  the  prison.  We  think 
that  we  are  protecting  and  avenging  society  by  imprison- 
ing criminals,  while,  on  the  contrary,  we  are  not  only  furnishing 
them  with  the  means  of  associating  with  one  another  and  giving 
mutual  instruction,  but  we  are  giving  them  real  enjoyment 
besides.  "I  should  Uke  to  tear  to  pieces  the  man  who  speaks 
evU  of  the  prison,"  sang  a  prisoner  at  Palermo.  ■  "The  prison  is 
a  piece  of  good  fortune  that  has  befallen  us,  because  it  teaches 
us  hiding-places,  and  how  to  steal."  ^  These  facts  explain  why 
we  so  often  find  in  our  statistics  indi%aduals  who  are  sentenced 
50  or  60  times,  persons  who  steal  simply  in  order  to  be  incar- 
cerated again.  A  certain  man  named  Zucchi  stole  during  the 
Assizes  in  order  to  be  arrested.  "Since  1852,"  he  said,  "I  have 
passed  20  years  in  prison.  The  amnesty  set  me  free;  but  I 
cannot  live  on  a  franc  a  day,  and  I  thought  I  would  get  myself 
put  in  prison,  so  as  to  be  able  to  eat,  drink,  and  sleep.  Your 
Honor,  increase  the  sentence,  for,  after  all,  one  is  not  so  badly 
oflF  in  prison."  ^  In  Rome,  in  1879,  an  old  man  of  80,  who  had 
spent  47  years  in  prison,  begged  the  judge  to  send  him  back.  "I 
do  not  ask  for  a  position,"  he  said,  "but  for  some  prison  where 
I  can  live  in  peace.  I  am  already  80  years  old,  and  I  shall  not 
live  long  enough  to  ruin  the  government."  Olivecrona  tells 
of  a  convict  who,  on  leaving  the  prison,  thanked  the  director, 
and  declared  that  he  had  never  before  had  such  good  food  as  he 
had  had  since  his  incarceration. 

"  While  the  convict,"  says  Olivecrona,  "  gets  his  52  kilos  of 
meat  a  year,  the  peasant  ordinarily  has  but  25  kilos  of  salted 

1  Lombroso,  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 
'  "Ri vista  di  Discipline  Carcerarie,"  1878. 


210  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§93 

beef  and  half  a  hog  salted  for  himself  and  his  whole  family. 
We  must,  therefore,  place  the  mildness  of  the  prison  regimen 
as  one  of  the  causes  of  recidivism."  ^ 


§  92.   Sensation 

There  is  another  very  powerful  cause  of  crime,  which,  how- 
ever, it  is  hard  to  estimate  exactly,  except,  perhaps,  by  the 
increase  of  certain  crimes  in  some  professions.  I  refer  to  the 
direct  influence  of  sense  impressions.  Thus,  for  example,  there 
are  thieves  who  cannot  see  gold  without  taking  it.  A  rich 
banker,  named  Downer,  entered  the  establishment  of  his  bar- 
ber in  a  state  of  intoxication.  An  apprentice  of  the  latter,  16 
years  old,  who  up  to  that  time  had  been  entirely  honest,  hearing 
the  jingling  of  the  money  in  the  banker's  pocket,  was  immedi- 
ately seized  with  the  idea  of  killing  him,  and  strangled  him  with 
a  cord.  Terrified  at  his  crime  he  fled  and  confessed,  declaring 
that  if  he  had  not  heard  the  sound  of  the  coin  he  would  never 
have  thought  of  committing  the  horrible  deed.  Marie  Frank, 
38  years  old,  an  inveterate  drinker,  who  had  already  had  a 
period  of  insanity  and  was  continually  beaten  by  her  husband, 
one  day  saw  a  great  fire,  and  immediately  went  and  set  fire 
to  twelve  houses.  Adele  Strohm,  while  witnessing  the  execu- 
tion of  two  convicts,  conceived  the  idea  of  killing  her  best 
friend  in  order  to  die  in  the  grace  of  God.^ 

§  93.  Imitation 

The  cases  cited  are  doubtless  to  be  explained  in  part  by  in- 
sanity; but  still  more  there  enters  the  effect  of  imitation,  which 
is  one  of  the  most  active  causes  of  crime  as  well  as  insanity.  In 
1863  and  in  1872  hardly  had  the  newspapers  begun  to  speak  of 
the  abandonment  of  children,  than  this  crime  was  repeated  in 
Marseilles  8  times  in  a  single  day  (Despine).  The  news  of  the 
assassination  of  Archbishop  Sibour  impelled  a  priest  to  attack 
the  bishop  of  Matera,  although  he  had  no  grudge  against  him 
whatever.  Dufresne  hated  a  certain  Delauchx,  but  without 
thinking  of  harming  him.  He  read  the  account  of  the  trial  of 
1  "De  la  Recidive,"  1812.  «  Despine,  o-p.  cit. 


§  93]  PRISONS  211 

Verger,  and  getting  up,  he  cried,  "I  too  will  do  as  Verger  did," 
and  killed  his  enemy.  At  Bergamo,  a  short  time  after  the  trial 
of  Verzeni,  two  other  cases  of  the  strangling  of  women  took 
place;  and  similar  phenomena  occurred  in  Paris  after  the  trials 
of  Philippe,  Billoir,  and  Moyaux,  and  in  Florence  after  that  of 
Martinati.  At  the  time  of  the  trial  of  Roux  two  servants  pre- 
tended that  they  had  been  garrotted  by  their  master,  after 
having  stolen  from  him  themselves.  The  poisoning  of  La 
Pommerais  was  followed  by  that  of  Pritchard. 

This  morbid  stimulation  is  increased  a  hundred-fold  by  the 
prodigious  increase  of  really  criminal  newspapers,  which  spread 
abroad  the  virus  of  the  most  loathsome  social  plagues,  simply 
for  sordid  gain,  and  excite  the  morbid  appetite  and  still  more 
morbid  curiosity  of  the  lower  social  classes.  They  may  be  likened 
to  those  maggots  which,  sprung  from  putrefaction,  increase  it 
by  their  presence.  These  newspapers,  unfortunately,  have  in 
a  single  Italian  city  as  many  as  28,000  readers.  In  New  York 
in  1851  a  woman  murdered  her  husband;  a  few  days  afterward 
three  other  women  did  the  same  thing.  Corridori  killed  the 
director  of  his  school,  who  had  administered  a  deserved  reproof 
to  him,  saying  before  he  struck  him,  "I  wiU  repeat  the  case  of 
the  director  of  Catanzaro,"  who  had  also  been  killed  for  a  similar 
cause.  The  attempted  assassination  of  D.  James  upon  the  rail- 
way was  followed  by  another  upon  the  same  line  (Montel).^ 

^  Holtzendorff  gives  us  many  other  examples  in  his  magnificent  work, 
"Das  Verbrechen  des  Mordes  und  die  Todestrafe,"  Berlin,  1875. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

ASSOCIATIONS  OF   CRIMINALS,   AND   THEIR   CAUSES 

§94- 

THE  aetiology  of  associated  crime,  which  is  the  most  im- 
portant and  the  most  harmful,  deserves  to  be  studied  by 
itself. 

The  first  cause  that  may  be  assigned  to  this  phenomenon  is 
tradition.  The  long  persistence  and  obstinacy  of  such  associa- 
tions as  the  Mafia,  the  Camorra,  and  brigandage,  seem  to  proceed 
in  the  first  place  from  the  antiquity  of  their  existence,  for  the 
long  repetition  of  the  same  acts  transforms  them  into  a  habit, 
and  consequently  into  a  law.  History  teaches  us  that  ethnic 
phenomena  of  long  duration  are  not  to  be  eradicated  easily  at 
a  stroke.  The  Camorra  was  already  in  existence  in  Naples  in 
1568.  We  know  from  the  edicts  of  the  Spanish  viceroys.  Count 
Miranda,  the  Duke  of  Alcala,  et  al.,  that  gamblers,  gambling- 
house  keepers,  and  those  who  levied  tribute  on  these  houses  on 
their  own  account,  were  threatened  with  the  galleys,  and  also 
those  prisoners  who,  under  pretext  of  an  offering  for  certain  holy 
images,  levied  a  tax  upon  the  other  prisoners.^  Monnier  remarks 
very  truly  that  the  etymology  of  camorra  shows  its  Spanish 
origin.  The  word  in  Spanish  means  a  quarrel,  brawl,  or  dis- 
pute, and  camorrista  signifies  a  bad  character.  The  Arabic 
word  kumar  means  a  gambling  game.  We  learn  from  a  novel 
of  Cervantes  that  at  about  the  time  we  have  been  speaking  of 
there  was  an  association  in  Seville  exactly  corresponding  to 
the  Camorra.  This  society,  likewise,  levied  tribute  upon  every 
thief  for  an  image  which  was  held  in  special  reverence,  gave  the 
police  a  part  of  its  gains,  and  undertook  to  execute  private 
acts  of  revenge,  including  the  sfregio,  or  face-slashing.  To  this 
association  were  attached  novices,   called   "minor  brothers," 

1  Mordini,  "Relazione  al  R.  Ministero,"  Rome,  1874;  Monnier,  "Sulla 
Camorra,"  1861. 


§95]  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  CRIMINALS  213 

who  had  to  hand  over  the  entire  proceeds  of  their  thefts  for  the 
first  half-year,  carry  messages  to  the  "major  brothers"  in  prison, 
and  perform  subordinate  offices  generally.  The  major  brothers 
had  a  common  surname,  and  shared  equitably  the  sums  which 
the  associates  turned  into  the  common  treasury.  The  thieves 
of  Morocco  also  levy  a  tax  upon  the  prostitutes. 

Societies  entirely  similar  to  the  Camorra  have  existed  in  all 
imperfectly  civilized  periods.  Thus  Scalia  has  found  mentioned 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  in  the  rules  of  the  Stinche  prison  and  the 
prisons  of  Parma,  abuses  like  those  of  the  Camorra,  especially 
in  connection  with  gambling.  We  read  that  each  roomful  of 
prisoners  had  its  chief,  called  "capitaneo"  or  "podesta,"  pre- 
cisely as  the  modern  Camorrists  have  their  "priore  ";  and  this 
mediaeval  Camorra  used  to  tax  the  new  comers,  just  as  is  the 
custom  to-day.^  In  Don  Quixote  we  are  told  how  certain  idle 
folk  exacted  a  share  of  the  gains  of  lucky  gamblers  in  return  for 
a  prediction  of  the  lucky  or  unlucky  plays.  This  is  the  ordinary 
mission  of  the  modem  Camorrist. 

Brigandage,  which  persists  with  obstinacy  in  southern  Italy 
and  in  Sardinia,  probably  has  its  origin  in  historic  tradition, 
for  it  already  existed  in  the  most  ancient  times  in  central  and 
southern  Italy,  and  Strabo  mentions  it  in  connection  with 
Sardinia. 

"In  the  kingdom  of  Naples,"  writes  Giannone  (IV,  10), 
"there  were  always  bandits  in  the  train  of  the  invaders,  Greek, 
Lombard,  Saracen,  Angevin,  or  Albanian,  all  alike  thievish, 
cruel,  and  greedy." 

§95.  Religion  —  Morals — Politics 

In  countries  where  civilization  is  not  yet  firmly  established, 
there  exists  no  clear  notion  of  morals  and  justice,  and  religion  is 
often  but  the  accomplice  or  instigator  of  crime.  In  Bari  there 
was  said  daily  the  "Mass  of  the  brigands,"  at  the  expense  of  the 
brigand  Pasquale.  "We  are  blessed  by  God,"  he  said  to  a 
friend  —  "the  gospels  say  so."  The  state  of  morality  naturally 
falls  in  with  these  notions  of  religion. 

*  Beltrani-Scalia,  "Storia  della  Riforma  delle  Carceri  in  Italia,"  1868, 
p.  288. 


214  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§  95 

"  In  Naples  in  1877  an  Esposito,  after  having  assassinated  an 
ex-camorrist  by  order  of  his  chief,  went  to  give  himself  up  to 
justice  in  order  to  protect  his  superior  from  arrest.  An  ap- 
plauding crowd  accompanied  him  to  the  prison,  and  covered 
him  with  flowers  like  a  hero  "  (Onofrio). 

Where  justice  is  quite  powerless  the  injured  person  must  nec- 
essarily have  recourse  to  his  own  strength  or  that  of  his  friends. 
If  honor  is  at  stake,  he  will  seek  a  private  revenge;  or  if  it  is  a 
question  of  stolen  property,  he  will  come  to  a  friendly  under- 
standing with  the  thieves.  In  Sicily,  as  was  seen  in  the  Lombard 
trial,  one  pays  a  certain  sum  to  recover  a  stolen  horse  or  sheep; 
or  the  thief  may  pay  a  certain  sum  to  the  person  robbed,  in 
order  to  avoid  prosecution  or  the  recovery  of  the  stolen  prop- 
erty. This  proceeding  recalls  at  every  point  the  customs  of 
primitive  justice.^ 

There  is  another  and  very  potent  cause  that  favors  the  forma- 
tion of  associations  of  criminals  in  civilized  countries.  This  is 
the  admiration  inspired  in  the  weak  by  brute  strength.  Any 
one  who  has  seen,  in  the  midst  of  an  effeminate  population  with 
their  soft  flesh,  soft  speech,  and  weak  character,  a  real  Camor- 
rist,  with  martial  brows,  iron  muscles,  and  rolling  r's,  compre- 
hends at  once  that  if  the  Camorra  had  not  been  brought  in,  it 
would  have  arisen  of  its  own  accord,  as  the  inevitable  result  of 
the  contrast  between  these  energetic  individuals  and  the  sheep- 
like multitude.  Even  the  Camorrist  bows  to  this  law;  a  strong 
and  violent  man  himself,  he  bows  to  one  stronger  and  more  vio- 
lent. Monnier  cites  a  very  curious  proof  of  this  influence.  A 
Calabrian  priest,  imprisoned  as  the  result  of  an  affair  of  gal- 
lantry, upon  entering  the  prison  was  asked  to  pay  the  usual  tax 
to  the  Camorra.  He  refused,  and,  being  threatened,  replied  that 
if  he  had  been  armed  no  one  would  have  dared  to  use  threats 
with  him.  "If  that  is  all!"  said  the  Camorrist,  and  in  the 
twinkUng  of  an  eye  offered  him  two  knives,  only  to  drop  dead 
the  next  moment.  The  same  evening  the  homicidal  priest,  who 
feared  the  vengeance  of  the  Camorra  more  than  he  did  the 
justice  of  the  Bourbon  government,  to  his  great  astonishment 
found  himself  offered  the  office  of  "barattolo"  in  the  society. 
1  See  Du  Boys,  "Histoire  du  Droit  Criminel." 


§96]  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  CRIMINALS  215 

He  had  been  admitted  as  a  Camorrist  without  his  own  wish. 
The  same  adventure  happened  to  another  Calabrian,  who  re- 
fused to  pay  the  tax  and  threatened  with  his  knife  the  man  wha 
tried  to  collect  it.  Onofrio  writes,  "In  Sicily  they  call  any  one 
who  has  courage  *  Mafioso.' "  The  Camorra  is  thus  the  expres- 
sion of  the  natural  self-confidence  of  the  strong,  when  they  see 
themselves  surrounded  only  by  weaklings. 

But  it  is  not  only  the  strength  of  the  few  that  maintains  this 
state  of  things,  but  also  the  fear  felt  by  the  many.  The  brigand 
Lombardo  declared  that  the  warmest  partisans  of  his  enterprises 
were  the  respectable  land-owners,  who,  from  fear  of  making  him 
their  enemy,  told  him  of  the  houses  of  their  neighbors  that  he 
might  rob.  "They  did  not  realize,"  he  added,  "that  they  in 
their  turn  would  be  pointed  out  by  others,  so  that  in  the  end 
they  lost  much  more  than  if  they  had  combined  against  me.'* 
"A  single,  unarmed  Camorrist,"  writes  Monnier,  "shows  him- 
seK  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  of  thousands  of  people,  and  demands 
his  tribute.  He  is  submissively  obeyed,  much  more  so  than  if  he 
were  the  regular  tax-collector."  "The  spirit  of  the  Camorra," 
writes  Mordini,  "persists  in  Naples,  that  is  to  say,  intimidation 
persists  as  the  result  of  arrogance  and  presumption."  Monnier 
explains  the  long  persistence  of  the  Camorra  and  brigandage  in 
southern  Italy  by  the  dominance  of  fear.  The  rehgion  taught 
by  the  priests  was  nothing  but  the  fear  of  the  devil;  the  pre- 
vailing politics  consisted  of  nothing  but  fear  of  the  king,  who 
held  the  middle  class  in  subjection  through  their  fear  of  the  pro- 
letariat; while  both  classes  were  kept  in  order  through  the  fear 
of  a  brutal  military  and  police  force.  Fear  took  the  place  of 
conscience  and  devotion  to  duty.  Order  was  kept  not  by  ele- 
vating man,  but  by  degrading  him.  And  what  happened?  Fear 
became  a  ready  weapon  in  the  hands  of  the  most  violent. 

96.  Barbarism 

Aside  from  what  has  been  stated  above,  many  other  circum- 
stances belonging  to  a  state  of  semi-civilization  may  have  an 
influence  upon  the  prevalence  of  brigandage.  Such  a  state  of 
society  offers  more  opportunity  for  successful  ambuscades  and 


216  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§97 

safe  places  of  refuge.  Thus  the  forests  of  Sora,  Pizzuto,  S.  Elia, 
Faiola,  and  Sila  were  always  the  resort  of  brigands,  and  the  same 
is  true  in  France  of  the  forests  of  Osgier,  Rouvray,  etc.  For 
similar  reasons  localities  largely  uninhabited  and  not  connected 
with  others  by  frequent  roads  are  favorable  for  bandits.  In 
Italy  we  see  brigandage  disappearing  before  the  railroads,  and 
it  is  never  known  to  persist  in  countries  crossed  by  numerous 
good  highways,  with  many  towns.  The  province  of  Syracuse, 
which  is  better  provided  with  roads  than  any  other  in  Sicily, 
has  no  brigands;  while  Basilicata,  in  which  in  1870  91  out  of 
124  comumnes  had  no  roads,  was  the  province  most  infested 
with  brigands. 

§  97.  Bad  Govenunent 

In  Mexico  not  so  very  many  years  ago  the  sons  of  noble 
families  thought  it  entirely  proper  to  commit  highway  robbery, 
just  as  was  the  case  in  Paris  in  1400  and  in  Venice  in  1600. 
In  the  last  years  of  the  pontificate  of  Clement  XIV  there  were 
recorded  12,000  homicides,  of  which  4000  were  in  Rome  itself. 
In  Venice  up  to  the  time  of  Napoleon  there  still  existed  the 
so-called  Buli,  who  domineered  over  the  people  at  pleasure, 
entirely  by  means  of  the  terror  they  had  managed  to  inspire. 
To  comprehend  the  unhappy  condition  to  which  society  was 
reduced  at  that  period,  it  is  enough  to  recall  that  the  most 
famous  men  of  the  Republic  were  publicly  banished  for  igno- 
minious crimes.  It  is  enough  to  cite  Morosini,  Comaro,  Falieri, 
and  Mocenigo. 

Says  Molmenti :  ^ 

"In  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  emperor  by  the  communes 
of  Castiglione,  Medole,  and  Solferino,  against  Ferdinand  II 
Gonzaga,  it  was  proved  that  the  assassins  of  the  prince  had 
murdered  poor  peasants,  cut  off  their  heads,  and  exposed  them 
in  an  iron  cage  under  the  walls  of  Castiglione;  that  his  men-at- 
arms  burned  farm-houses  and  bams,  plundered  the  dwellings, 
stole  money,  cattle,  and  furniture,  and  cut  down  or  rooted  up 
the  vineyards.  Even  in  the  Republic  of  San  Marco,  which, 
although  fallen  into  decay,  still  preserved  a  reputation  for 

1  P.  Molmenti,  "I  Banditti  della  Repubblica  di  Venezia,"  Florence, 
1896. 


§98]  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  CRIMINALS  217 

strictness,  the  depredations  of  bandits  were  frequent,  especially 
in  the  last  two  centuries.  All  precautions,  laws,  threats,  and 
punishments  often  remained  ineffectual.  If  a  Venetian  noble- 
man committed  a  crime,  the  government  immediately  sent  a 
band  of  men  into  the  city  whose  peace  he  had  disturbed.  But 
the  populace,  in  whom  the  criminal  inspired  the  greatest  respect, 
protected  him,  and  the  noble  delinquent  found  a  safe  retreat  in 
his  own  castle.  The  magistrates,  themselves  almost  all  nobles, 
after  pubUshing  decrees  and  sentences  against  the  offender 
and  making  loud  threats,  suffered  the  matter  to  fall  into  obliv- 
ion. The  ambassador  of  the  Venetian  Republic  in  Milan, 
sword  in  hand,  claimed  that  he  possessed  the  right  of  asylum. 
So,  when  one  morning  the  chief  of  the  Milan  city-guard  and 
his  men  passed  before  his  residence,  the  ambassador,  to  pun- 
ish such  audacity,  had  a  volley  fired  at  them,  and  killed  or 
wounded  several." 

Finally,  in  the  times  of  Cartouche  there  existed  in  Paris 
something  which  resembled,  if  not  the  Camorra,  at  least  the 
Sicilian  Mafia.  The  thieves  at  that  time  were  organized  into 
bands,  and  had  accomplices  even  in  the  ranks  of  the  police; 
they  had  pseudo-bailiffs  and  spies,  and  enrolled  a  whole  popu- 
lation in  their  number,  innkeepers,  porters,  watchmakers, 
tailors,  armorers,  and  even  physicians.  In  France  in  1500  the 
" Burgundians "  and  "Bohemians"  were  veritable  bands  of 
brigands,  composed  of  vagrants  and  soldiers  of  fortune,  who, 
as  society  became  more  and  more  civilized,  withdrew  into  the 
forests  of  Rouvray  and  Estrellere,  where  fugitives  from  the 
civil  wars  went  to  increase  their  number.* 


§  98.  Weapons 

Another  matter  which  has  great  influence  in  promoting 
brigandage  is  the  carrying  of  weapons  and  familiarity  with 
their  use.  The  gladiators,  in  old  Roman  times,  were  the  most 
terrible  leaders  of  bands  of  brigands  and  transformed  their 
companies  into  veritable  armies.  Tonunasi  Crudeli  says  quite 
rightly: 

"In  the  whole  of  southern  Italy,  beginning  with  the  Cam- 
pagna,  the  knife  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  an  implement  of  treach- 

1  LombroBO,  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II,  p.  474. 


218  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  [§99 

ery,  but  rather  as  the  sword  of  the  people.  Almost  always,  in 
fact,  its  use  is  preceded  by  a  formal  challenge.  The  custom  of 
holding  these  duels  is  so  deeply  rooted  that  during  the  disarming 
of  the  Sicilian  populace,  there  were  established  in  all  the  dis- 
tricts of  Palermo  hiding-places  in  the  walls,  known  to  all  the 
inhabitants  in  the  districts,  where  they  hid  their  knives,  and 
from  which  they  got  them  in  case  of  a  dispute." 


§  99.  Idleness 

The  prevalence  of  the  Mafia  in  Palmero  is  due  to  the  absence 
of  any  manufacturing  industry  and  to  the  influence  of  the 
monasteries,  which  is  favorable  to  idleness.  Certainly  priests 
and  monks  have  always  been  among  the  causes  of  brigandage. 
The  province  of  Naples  in  the  18th  century,  out  of  4  million 
inhabitants,  had  115,000  ecclesiastics,  of  whom  half  were 
monks;  each  village  of  3000  inhabitants  had  at  least  50  priests. 
The  priests  made  begging  not  only  a  trade  —  they  made  it  a 
work  of  merit. 

"One  of  the  principal  causes  of  brigandage  and  the  Camorra," 
says  Monnier,  "was  the  custom,  widespread  among  the  Nea- 
politans, of  letting  their  children,  from  the  age  of  three  on, 
grow  up  on  the  street.  There  they  learned  to  beg,  and  to  swear 
by  all  the  saints  that  they  were  orphans  and  dying  of  hunger. 
The  beggar  soon  became  a  rogue;  and,  being  cast  into  prison, 
became  a  member  of  the  Camorra,  if  he  was  brave,  or  its  victim, 
if  he  was  a  coward." 

The  mild  and  fertile  climate  of  Naples,  as  well  as  that  of  Pa- 
lermo, is  a  help  to  idleness  and  tempts  the  inhabitants  to  lounge 
in  the  streets;  it  furnishes  the  means  of  life  at  little  expense, 
and  does  not  let  the  need  and  duty  of  working  be  felt.  This 
is  why  associations  of  malefactors  are  more  frequent  in  the  prin- 
cipal cities,  especially  in  the  south,  where  the  violent  passions 
are  more  likely  to  provoke  certain  classes  of  crime.^ 

^  "In  my  opinion,"  so  Vincent  Maggiorani  writes  to  me,  "the  Mafia 
represents  the  acute  period  of  a  disease  which  has  invaded  more  or  less 
all  the  countries  near  the  Orient,  or  deriving  then-  population  from  it. 
I  beheye  that  the  occurrences  which  take  place  from  time  to  time  in  Spain 
are  only  a  different  form  of  the  same  malady.  You  will  find  nothing  like 
It  m  northern  Europe.  An  isothermal  line  marks  the  limits  of  this  tem- 
perament, etc." 


§100]  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  CRIMINALS  219 

The  formation  of  societies  of  criminals  plainly  depends  upon 
the  character  and  conditions  of  the  country.  Thus  we  see 
the  Mafia  and  Camorra  spring  up  again  after  they  have  been 
broken  up  and  all  their  members  deported.  In  1860-61  a 
great  number  of  Camorrists  were  deported  from  Naples;  yet, 
after  a  short  period  of  depression,  the  Camorra  was  more 
active  than  ever,  and  now  dares  to  threaten  the  electoral 
councils,  the  Palladium  of  Italy.  The  Mafia,  destroyed  in 
Palermo  in  1860,  rose  again  in  1866,  armed  and  powerful. 
The  Camorra,  annihilated  in  1874  by  Mordini,  was  resuscitated 
in  1877  under  the  regime  of  Nicotera;  and  if  it  has  not  installed 
its  members  in  the  highest  places  in  the  city  government,  it 
certainly  has  a  tremendous  influence  in  the  elections.  In 
Messina  in  1866  the  Camorra  was  destroyed,  literally,  by  the 
execution  of  its  29  leaders.  But  the  men  who  accomplished 
this  feat,  having  the  reputation  of  being  brave  men,  made  use 
of  it  to  carry  on  the  Camorra  themselves  as  actively  as  their 
predecessors,  or  even  more  so. 

§  100.  Poverty 

Much  has  been  said  with  regard  to  the  effect  of  poverty. 
The  pictures  which  Villari  has  drawn  of  the  condition  of  our 
people  in  the  south  are  so  horrible  as  to  make  us  shudder. 

"In  Sicily,"  he  writes,  "there  is  no  other  relation  between 
peasant  and  landlord  than  that  of  oppressor  and  oppressed. 
If  there  comes  a  bad  year,  the  peasant  returns  home  from  his 
labors  empty-handed.  If  the  year  is  a  good  one,  then  usurers 
take  the  place  of  hail,  grasshoppers,  storms,  and  hurricanes. 
The  peasants  are  a  troop  of  barbarians  in  the  heart  of  the 
island,  and  it  is  not  so  much  against  the  government  that  they 
rise  up,  as  against  the  usury  and  oppression  of  which  they 
are  the  victims.  If  they  execrate  every  form  of  government, 
it  is  because  they  believe  that  all  governments  sustain  their 
oppressors." 

That  poverty,  however,  has  not  all  the  importance  that 
Villari  would  like  to  attribute  to  it  (though  it  certainly  has  a 
great  deal)  is  evident  when  one  considers  the  facts  more  criti- 
cally.    Thus  the  district  of  Montreale,  which  is  certainly  one 


220  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  102 

of  the  least  poor  in  Sicily,  is  just  that  in  which  the  Mafia  re- 
cruits its  worst  members  from  among  the  well-to-do  classes. 
Naples,  too,  where  the  Camorra  rules,  is  certainly  not  in  a 
worse  condition  than  Calabria.  Artena,  whose  criminality  has 
been  described  above,  is  one  of  the  richest  districts  in  the 
province  of  Rome.  Moreover,  the  Camorra  draws  more  vic- 
tims than  true  accompUces  from  among  the  poor  of  Naples. 

§  loi.  Hybrid  Civilization 

Still  worse  than  the  lack  of  civilization,  as  regards  the  en- 
couragement of  criminal  societies,  is  the  mixture  of  civilization 
and  barbarism,  such  as  is  found  in  certain  parts  of  Italy  and 
in  a  large  portion  of  America,  where  we  see  peoples,  still  half- 
barbarous,  subjected  to  a  system  borrowed  from  more  civilized 
nations.  While  the  advantages  of  both  stages  of  society  are 
lacking,  the  harmful  features  of  both  are  present.  Thus, 
great  cities,  the  increase  of  wealth,  and  food  too  delicate,  in- 
crease vagrancy,  rape,  and  theft,  and  make  the  discovery  of 
crime  less  easy;  while  the  jury  system,  the  respect  for  personal 
liberty,  and  the  ease  of  getting  pardons  are  frequently  causes 
of  impunity  in  crime.  The  system  of  elective  offices,  especially 
when,  as  in  some  states  in  America,  it  is  extended  even  to  the 
judiciary,  offers  the  criminal  class  a  new  instrument  of  power 
and  illicit  gain.  We  see  associated  crime  extend  its  power 
to  the  press,  to  the  election  of  legislators,  and,  in  America,  to 
the  election  of  judges,  thus  gaining  a  double  advantage,  — 
immediate  gain  and  future  immunity. 

§  102.  Wars  and  Insurrections 

Political  disturbances  again,  wars  and  uprisings,  are  factors 
to  be  taken  into  account  in  this  connection.  The  gathering 
of  crowds,  great  excitement,  the  ease  of  obtaining  arms,  and 
the  relaxed  vigilance  of  the  government  are  all  natural  causes 
of  the  association  of  criminals.  Bands  so  formed  may  become 
bold  enough  to  make  themselves  real  poHtical  factors.  This 
is  the  explanation  of  the  atrocities  of  Alcolea  and  of  the  Paris 
Commune,  and  of  the  more  recent  events  of  similar  nature 


§  103  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  CRIMINALS  221 

in  Mexico  and  New  Orleans,  These  occurrences,  which  have 
become  unusual  in  our  day,  in  former  times  were  very  frequent. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  the  tyranny  of  the  barons  gave  to  brig- 
andage the  appearance  of  a  kind  of  social  institution,  defend- 
ing the  vassals  or  avenging  them  upon  their  lords,  who,  in 
their  turn,  regarded  robbery  as  a  noble  trade.  So  also  in 
ancient  times  the  ten  years  which  followed  the  restoration  of 
Sulla  were  a  golden  age  for  the  robbers  and  pirates  of  Italy. ^ 
In  1793  in  Paris,  at  the  time  of  the  free  distribution  of  bread, 
so  many  vagabonds  and  criminals  crowded  in  that  strangers 
were  warned  not  to  go  out  at  night,  if  they  did  not  wish  to  be 
robbed.  The  thieves  carried  their  boldness  so  far  that  they 
closed  the  highways  with  ropes.  Charles  de  Rouge  was  chief 
of  a  band  which  plundered  the  large  farms,  presenting  himself 
as  a  commissary  of  the  RepubUc.  During  the  Napoleonic 
wars  there  appeared  in  the  invaded  countries  a  band  of  robbers 
called  the  "army  of  the  moon."  This  sham  army  had  its 
sham  soldiers  and  sham  officers,  and  plundered  conquerors 
and  conquered  alike.  In  earher  times  there  were  similar  bands 
who  followed  the  Goths  and  Vandals  into  Italy.  In  modern 
Italy,  when  the  Bourbons  withdrew  from  Naples  to  Rome, 
brigandage  raged  in  Abruzzo;  and  when,  under  Murat,  the 
trade  of  brigand  became  dangerous,  the  Bourbons  landed  the 
convicts  of  Sicily  in  Calabria.  He  who  stole  the  most  was 
best  received  by  the  king.  "Criminal  acts,"  writes  CoUetta, 
"lost,  in  consequence,  their  criminal  character,  and  crime 
became  a  kind  of  trade  carried  on  all  over  the  kingdom." 
To  the  eyes  of  one  who  recognizes  the  essentially  immoral 
character  of  war,  this  breaking  out  of  criminality  is  not  sur- 
prising. Spencer,  in  his  splendid  study  of  ethics,  has  showed 
that  the  warlike  peoples  are  always  the  most  vicious. 

§  103.  Leaders 
If  at  any  given  moment,  in  a  country  where  criminal  ele- 
ments are  plentiful,  there  arises  a  criminal  who  is  a  genius, 
or  has  great  audacity  or  an  influential  social  position,  we  see 
criminal  associations  rise  and  multiply.     Thus  it  was  to  the 
*  Mommsen,  "History  of  Rome,"  Vol.  III. 


222  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§  104 

great  intelligence  of  their  leaders  that  the  bands  of  Lacenaire, 
Lombardo,  Strattmatter,  Hessel,  Maino,  Mottino,  La  Gala, 
and  Tweed  owed  their  origin  and  long  impunity.  Cavalcanti 
was  a  robber-chief  of  such  genius  that  almost  all  his  followers, 
more  fortunate  than  those  of  Alexander,  became  themselves 
leaders  of  terrible  bands,  like  Canosa,  Egidione,  etc.  The 
band  of  assassins  and  incendiaries  of  Longpierre  escaped  all 
inquiry,  because  they  were  organized  and  protected  by  Galle- 
mand,  the  mayor  of  the  place,  who,  by  incendiary  fires,  re- 
venged himself  upon  his  political  opponents,  or  depreciated 
goods  that  he  wanted  to  purchase. 


§  104.  Prisons 

But  the  principal  cause  of  associated  crime  has  been,  and 
still  is,  the  gathering  together  of  criminals  in  prisons  not  con- 
structed on  the  cellular  system.  Almost  all  the  criminal 
chiefs,  Maino,  Lombardo,  La  Gala,  Lacenaire,  Souffard,  Har- 
duin,  and  others,  have  been  men  who  have  escaped  from  the 
galleys  and  have  chosen  their  accomplices  from  among  their 
companions  who  had  there  given  proofs  of  boldness  and  ferocity. 
It  is  in  prison  that  the  Camorra  arose,  and  it  is  there  alone  that 
it  first  held  sway;  but  when,  under  King  Ferdinand  in  1830, 
many  convicts  were  set  at  liberty  by  the  royal  clemency,  they 
carried  over  into  free  hfe  the  illicit  gains  and  dissolute  manners 
to  which  they  had  become  accustomed.^  Only  a  few  years 
ago  the  Camorra  chose  its  chiefs  from  among  the  prisoners  in 
the  "Vicaria,"  and  the  free  Camorrists  made  no  important 
decision  without  first  consulting  these  chiefs.  In  Palermo* 
the  criminal  got  his  professional  education  in  prison,  and 
novices  without  prison  experience  were  admitted  only  into 
such  enterprises  as  required  a  large  number  of  persons. 

This  will  appear  natural  enough  if  we  recall  the  words  of 
the  criminal  of  Palermo  quoted  in  the  preceding  chapter: 
"Prison  is  a  piece  of  good  fortune  that  heaven  sends  us,  be- 
cause it  teaches  us  fit  places  and  companions  for  stealing."  ^ 

'  MoDiner,  o-p.  cit.,  p.  58.  »  Locatelli,  op.  cit. 

The  French  differs  m  the  two  places.  —  Transl. 


§106]  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  CRIMINALS  223 

§  105.  Influence  of  Race 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  influence  of  race  upon  crime. 
The  same  thing  is  naturally  true  of  associations  of  criminals.^ 

The  gypsies,  like  the  Bedouins,  may  be  called  a  race  of 
associated  malefactors.  According  to  Maury,  the  negro  in  the 
United  States,  and  in  southern  Italy  the  Albanians,  Greeks, 
and  at  times  even  the  native  population,  show  the  same  ten- 
dency to  associated  crime.  Saint-Jorioz  said,  in  speaking  of 
Sora:  "This  beautiful  country  swarms  with  thieves;  there  are 
as  many  of  them  as  there  are  inhabitants."  This  fact  ex- 
plains how  brigands  succeed  in  getting  themselves  elected  as 
communal  counselors.  The  inhabitants  of  Castelforte  and  of 
Spigno  protect  the  thieves  on  condition  that  they  practice  their 
calling  outside  the  district.  The  people  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Palermo,  among  whom  the  "Mafiosi"  swarm,  are  descended 
from  the  bravoes  of  the  ancient  barons;  or,  to  trace  their 
lineage  still  farther  back,  from  rapacious  Arab  conquerors, 
blood-brothers  of  the  Bedouins.  "I  have  noticed,"  writes 
d'Azeglio,  speaking  of  the  Romans,  "that  in  the  ancient  fiefs 
of  the  Middle  Ages  (Colonna,  Orsini,  Savello)  there  has  re- 
mained in  the  population  the  imprint  of  that  life  of  hatred, 
war,  and  division  which  was  the  normal  yearly  round  in  those 
unhappy  centuries.  Nearly  all  the  young  men  exemplify  the 
true  type  of  the  bravo."  ^ 

§  106.  Heredity 

These  questions  of  race  resolve  themselves  finally,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  into  the  question  of  heredity.  Among  the 
modern  brigands  of  southern  Italy  there  have  been  some  who 
descended  from  the  terrible  Fra  Diavolo.  Many  among  the 
famous  Camorrists  are  brothers,  and  we  know  of  the  seven 
Mazzardi  brothers,  the  Manzi  brothers,  the  Vadarelli,  and  the 
La  Galas.  In  the  United  States  the  Younger  brothers,  who 
robbed  banks  in  Minnesota  in  broad  daylight,   are  equally 

^  Lombroso,  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II. 
2  "Bozzetti  della  Vita  Italiana,"  p.  187. 


224  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  107 

notorious.  The  band  of  Cuccito  and  that  of  Nathan  were 
composed  of  parents,  brothers,  and  brothers-in-law.  Here,  to 
the  influence  of  heredity,  tradition,  and  education,  is  added 
the  power  of  numbers.  A  family  of  criminals  is  a  band  already 
formed,  which,  from  the  fact  of  parentage,  has  the  means  of 
increasing  and  perpetuating  itself  in  the  children. 

In  1821  the  communes  of  Vrely  and  Rosieres  were  afflicted 
with  thefts  and  homicides,  showing  on  the  part  of  the  authors 
a  great  knowledge  of  the  locality,  and  uncommon  boldness. 
Terror  prevented  the  laying  of  information,  but  the  criminals 
were  finally  discovered,  and  were  found  all  to  belong  to  one 
family.  In  1832  the  thefts  were  renewed,  and  the  guilty  per- 
sons were  no  other  than  the  nephews  of  the  first  lot  of  criminals. 
In  1852  and  the  years  immediately  following  assassinations 
occurred  again  in  the  same  communes.  The  murderers  prove 
to  be  great-nephews  of  the  earher  ofiFenders,  who  had  been 
active  thirty  years  before.  These  facts  explain  to  us  why  we 
see  a  constant  recrudescence  of  crime  in  a  given  village.  It  is 
enough  that  a  single  one  of  these  perverted  families  should 
survive,  in  order  to  corrupt  the  whole  district,  through  the 
elective  affinity  there  is  between  criminals.  This  justifies  to 
a  certain  extent  the  barbarity  of  the  ancients  and  of  savages 
in  punishing  with  the  guilty  their  innocent  relatives. 


§  107.  Other  Causes 

Criminals  combine  very  often  from  necessity  also,  in  order 
to  be  able  to  resist  an  armed  force,  or  to  escape  the  search  of 
the  police  by  removing  themselves  from  the  scene  of  their 
crimes;  though  there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  nearly  all 
criminal  bands  to  commit  their  misdeeds  just  around  the  circle 
of  their  own  district. 

Again,  the  necessity  of  supplying  the  lack  of  certain  qualities 
may  lead  to  association.  Thus  Lacenaire,  who  was  a  coward, 
joined  himself  to  Avril,  who  was  fierce  and  bloody;  while 
Maino  and  La  Gala,  who  were  courageous  but  ignorant,  asso- 
ciated with  them  Ferraris  and  Davanzo,  who  were  educated. 
Most  criminals  seek  in  others  a  courage  they  lack  themselves. 


§  107]  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  CRIMINALS  225 

It  may  be  added  that  for  many  of  these  people  a  crime  is  a 
sort  of  pleasure  expedition,  which  is  not  so  enjoyable  unless 
carried  on  in  company. 

At  times  an  association  has  an  entirely  accidental  origin. 
Thus  Tepas,  just  out  of  prison,  started  to  rob  a  drunken  man, 
when  he  heard  himself  called  by  Faurier,  who  wanted  to  share 
the  booty.  From  this  chance  meeting  sprung  the  Tepas  band. 
"The  most  accidental  circumstances,"  says  Mayhew,  "such  as 
the  fact  of  living  in  the  same  neighborhood,  or  street,  or  bear- 
ing the  same  name,  or  meeting  when  coming  out  of  prison, 
etc.,  gives  rise  to  the  bands  of  petty  thieves  of  London." 
Spagliardi  tells  us  that  the  meeting  places  of  the  gamins  are 
where  bands  of  thieves  have  their  origin  in  Lombardy. 


w 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

CAUSES   OF   POLITICAL   CRIMES 
§I08. 

E  have  seen  that  poHtical  crime  is  a  kind  of  crime  of 
passion,  pmiishable  only  because  it  involves  an  ofiFense 
against  the  conservative  sentiments  of  the  human  race,  par- 
ticularly in  the  fields  of  religion  and  politics.^  We  have  seen  ^ 
that  it  is  especially  frequent  among  the  young,  and  in  the  most 
intelligent  and  cultivated  nations. 

§  109.   Orography 

The  influence  which  a  lighter  atmospheric  pressure  has  upon 
this  kind  of  crime  is  incontestably  very  great.  It  can  be  said 
that  the  most  revolutionary  peoples  have  always  been  found 
among  the  mountains.  Witness  the  struggles  of  the  Samnites, 
the  Marsi,  the  Ligures,  the  Cantabri,  and  the  Bruttii  against 
the  Romans;  those  of  the  Asturians  against  the  Goths  and 
Saracens;  and  those  of  the  Albanians,  Druses,  Maronites,  and 
Mainnottes  ^  against  the  Turks.  Just  so  it  was  in  the  Cevennes 
in  France,  and  in  the  Valtelline  and  at  Pinerolo  in  Italy,  that 
the  first  efforts  in  favor  of  rehgious  hberty  were  made,  not- 
withstanding the  dragonnades  and  the  punishments  of  the 
Inquisition.  According  to  Plutarch,  the  inhabitants  of  Attica, 
after  the  insurrection  of  Cimon,  were  divided  into  three  parties, 
corresponding  to  the  differences  in  the  geographical  configura- 
tion of  the  country.    Those  who  lived  in  the  mountains  wanted 

'  For  a  full  presentation  of  this  subject  see  my  "Crime  Politique  et 
lea  Revolutions,"  Pt.  I,,  1890. 

»  Lombroso,  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II. 

*  It  was  the  Mainnottes  of  Moimt  Taigete  that  first  proclaimed  inde- 
pendence of  Turkey.  (Gervinus,  "Geschichte  der  Erhebune  Griechenlanda," 
1864.) 


§  112]  CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  CRIMES  227 

a  popular  government  at  any  price;  those  who  Hved  in  the  plains 
demanded  an  oligarchical  government;  while  the  dwellers  along 
the  seacoast  preferred  a  mixed  form  of  government. 


§110.  Points  of  Convergence 

In  the  places  where  valleys  converge  and  where  the  people 
<3ome  most  into  contact  with  others,  they  are  most  inchned  to 
innovation  and  revolution.  Poland  undoubtedly  owes  its  early 
civilization  and  its  revolts,  as  well  as  later  its  misfortunes,  to 
the  position  which  it  occupies  at  the  meeting  point  of  Slav, 
Teuton,  and  Byzantine.  Those  departments  of  France  that 
are'  situated  upon  the  courses  of  the  great  rivers,  the  Seine, 
Rhone,  and  Loire,  or  which  include  great  ports,  furnish,  aside 
from  other  causes,  the  largest  number  of  revolutionary  votes.^ 

§  zxi.  Density 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  places  with  great  density  of  popu- 
lation and  great  industrial  activity;  here,  too,  the  revolution- 
ary spirit  shows  itself  in  a  high  state  of  development,  just  as 
the  conservative  spirit  predominates  in  agricultural  and  thinly 
populated  regions. 

§  113.  Healthfuhiess — Genius 

Both  the  salubrity  and  fertility  of  a  country  exercise  an  influ- 
ence in  the  development  of  the  revolutionary  spirit,  as  I  have 
shown  in  the  case  of  Italy  by  long  series  of  figures. ^ 

Genius,  too,  plays  its  part,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that 
Florence,  Athens,  and  Geneva,  cities  noted  for  their  men  of 
genius,  have  also  been  noted  for  insurrections.  Geniuses  and 
revolts  have  likewise  been  numerous  in  the  Romagna  and  in 
Liguria,  which  are  among  the  most  healthful  parts  of  Italy. 
In  France  the  parallelism  is  still  clearer,  for  in  75  departments 
out  of  86,  genius,  tall  stature,  and  anti-monarchical  parties  go 
together. 

1  Lombroso  and  Laschi,  "Crime  Politique." 
*  Lombroso  and  Laschi,  op.  cit. 


228  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  114 

§  113.  Races 

The  ethnic  influence  in  its  turn  is  incontestable.  By  a  study 
of  the  votes  and  the  revolts  in  France,  I  have  shown  that  the 
departments  in  which  the  Ligurian  and  Gallic  races  predomi- 
nate have  furnished  the  greatest  number  of  rebels,  and  that 
the  Iberians  and  Cimbrians  have  furnished  the  minimum. 
Many  small  districts  and  single  cities,  like  Arluno  and  Leghorn, 
are  known  for  their  constant  tendency  to  revolt.^ 

The  history  of  the  Apuanian  Ligurians  explains  to  us  why 
to-day  anarchy  and  insurrection  often  break  out  among  them,' 
the  Ligures  were  continually  in  revolt  against  the  Romans. 


§  114.  Crossing  of  Races 

The  ethnic  influence  comes  out  very  plainly  in  the  cross'ng 
of  races,  which  is  able  to  make  them  all  more  revolutionary  End 
progressive.  This  is  a  phenomenon  connected  with  that  dis- 
covered in  the  vegetable  world  by  Darwin,  that  even  bisexual 
plants  ought  to  be  cross-fertilized;  and  also  with  the  law  of 
Romanes,  according  to  which  independent  variation  is  the 
primary  cause  of  evolution.  The  lonians  give  us  an  excellent 
example.  They  were  revolutionary,  and  produced  the  greatest 
geniuses  of  Greece,  certainly  as  a  consequence  of  the  fact  that 
they  were  early  crossed  with  the  Lydians  and  Persians  in  Asia 
Minor  and  the  islands,  and  in  addition  were  subjected  to  the 
influence  of  a  change  of  climate.  The  crossing  of  the  Poles 
with  the  Teutonic  race,  all  the  more  potent  because  the  latter 
was  in  the  nascent  state,  explains  why  Poland  rose  in  so  short 
a  time  to  great  intellectual  heights,  in  the  midst  of  other  Slavs 
still  barbarous,  and  this  at  a  time  when  these  very  Germans 
who  brought  to  the  Poles  the  first  seeds  of  their  civilization 
had  themselves  but  a  low  degree  of  culture.  We  have  here, 
then,  a  partial  explanation  of  Poland's  continual  insurrections. ^ 

1  Leghorn  was  settled  by  the  Illyrian  Libumi,  who  were  notorious  as 
pirates,  and  first  visited  the  Tuscan  waters  simply  for  the  purposes  of 
plunder. 

'  The  crossing  with  the  Germans  seems  to  have  been  going  on  even  in 


§  115]  CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  CRIMES  229 

The  climatic  and  racial  crossing  of  the  South  American 
natives  with  the  European  colonists  in  the  Spanish  republics 
has  produced  a  race  active  both  commercially  and  intellectually, 
but  above  all  things  given  to  revolution.  Modern  Spain  cannot 
boast  of  a  Ramos-Mejas,  a  Roca,  a  Mitri,  or  a  Pinero. 


§  115.  Bad  Government 

A  government  under  which  the  pubUc  welfare  is  neglected 
and  respectable  persons  persecuted  is  always  provocative  of 
insurrections  and  revolutions.  Persecutions  make  great  changes 
in  men's  ideas  and  feelings.  Benjamin  Franklin,  on  the  eve  of 
the  American  Revolution,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Rules  by 
which  a  great  empire  may  be  reduced  to  a  small  one,"  sums 
up  as  follows  the  characteristics  of  the  bad  government  which, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  a  short  time  drove  his  country  to  revolt: 

"Do  you  wish,"  he  writes,  addressing  the  mother  country, 
"to  irritate  your  colonies  and  drive  them  into  rebellion?  Here 
is  an  infallible  method:  Always  suppose  them  ready  to  revolt, 
and  treat  them  accordingly.  Place  in  their  midst  soldiers  who 
by  their  insolence  may  provoke  an  insurrection,  and  then  put 
it  down  with  bullets  and  bayonets." 

In  a  country  where  political  reforms  keep  pace  with  the  aspira- 
tions of  the  people,  insurrections  seldom  or  never  occur.  The 
reign  of  Louis  Philippe  in  France,  favorable  to  the  wealthy 
classes  but  without  any  sympathy  with  the  mass  of  the  people, 
multiplied  insurrections  and  political  crimes,  which  disappeared 
in  the  first  years  of  the  Cassarian-democratic  government  of 
Napoleon  III,  who  impressed  the  people  by  his  magnificence  and 
his  attempts  at  social  reform.  It  is  a  fact  demonstrated  by  the 
statistics  of  persons  indicted  for  political  causes  from  1826  to 
1880  (including  offenses  of  the  press),  that  the  Napoleonic 
period  (1851-70)  corresponds  with  the  minimum  number  of 
political  trials. 

prehistoric  times.  It  is  certain  that  in  the  prehistoric  graves  of  Poland 
and  of  Prussia,  dolichocephalic,  orthognathous  skulls  are  found, — skulls, 
that  is  to  say,  of  Teutonic  type. 


230 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  115 


Cases  "en 

Cases  of 

contradictoire  " 

contumacy 

1828-30    

13 

284 

1831-35    

90 

406 

1836-40    

13 

63 

1841-45    

4 

41 

1846-50    

9 

271 

1851-55    

4 

1856-60    

1 

1861-65    

1 

1866-70    

1 

1871-75    

10 

64 

1876-80    

6 

146 


1135 


The  struggle  for  supremacy  between  different  social  classes 
is  an  effect  of  that  inequality  which  Aristotle  calls  "the  source 
of  all  the  revolutions."  ^ 

"On  the  one  side,"  he  writes,  "are  those  who  desire  equality, 
and  who  rise  in  revolt  if  they  believe  they  have  less  than  others, 
even  though  they  really  have  as  much  as  the  most  favored. 
On  the  other  side  there  are  those  who  aspire  to  power,  and 
who,  although  equality  exists,  rise  in  insurrection  if  they  think 
that  this  equality  has  no  sound  reason  for  being." 

Abuse  of  power  by  the  dominant  class  is  enough  to  produce 
a  reaction;  and  Aristotle  says  again  ("Politics") :  "To  whatever 
side  a  government  inclines,  it  always  degenerates  through  an 
exaggeration  of  the  principles  upon  which  it  is  based."  In 
France  the  Revolution  of  1789,  which  appeared  to  have  choked 
the  monarchical  principle  with  the  blood  of  the  king,  degener- 
ating into  anarchy,  prepared  the  way  for  the  Empire;  and  the 
whole  process  was  repeated  by  the  Republic  of  1849  and  the 
Second  Empire. 

*  "Politics."  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  all  the  authors  who  have  studied 
or  written  about  revolutions  have  simply  followed  Aristotle.  This  is 
because  he  was  both  an  observer  and  a  genius,  and  li\'ing  in  the  midst  of 
a  great  number  of  Uttle  revolutions,  saw  and  understood  much  more  than 
his  successors. 


§  117]  CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  CRIMES  231 

§  ii6.  Exclusive  Predominance  of  One  Class —  Priests 

Whatever  the  form  of  government,  the  dominance  of  one 
class  or  caste  over  another  has  always  been  a  source  of  danger, 
through  hindering  the  organic  development  of  a  country  and 
predisposing  it  first  to  atrophy  and  then  to  anarchy.  It  is  thus 
that  the  dominance  of  the  clergy  in  Spain  and  Scotland,  and  in 
Italy  in  the  Papal  States  and  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  for  a  long 
time  retarded  the  progress  of  these  countries  and  drove  them 
to  revolt.  It  was  for  analogous  reasons  that  the  tyranny  of  the 
Roman  patricians,  notwithstanding  their  defeat,  led  to  the  con- 
spiracies of  Saturninus  and  of  Catiline,  and  then  to  the  dictator- 
ship of  Caesar.  This  last,  in  its  turn,  led  to  the  conspiracy  of 
Brutus,  which  finally  failed  because  the  rise  of  the  Empire  rep- 
resented a  justifiable  reaction  of  the  lower  classes  against  the 
oligarchy.  Not  infrequently  members  of  an  oligarchy,  strug- 
gling with  one  another  for  power,  as  at  Cnidos,  leave  the  way 
open  for  the  people  to  overthrow  them.  In  Florence  in  the 
Middle  Ages  the  tyranny  of  the  nobles  prepared  the  way  for 
the  triumph  of  petty  tradesmen;  and  the  abuses  of  this  class 
brought  about,  in  turn,  the  election  of  the  Duke  of  Athens, 
who,  although  he  sought  to  repress  the  abuse  of  power,  ended 
by  alienating  the  people  from  him  and  being  himself  driven 
out.  When,  on  the  contrary,  the  social  classes  and  the  powers 
pertaining  to  them  are  in  a  state  of  equilibrium,  liberty  is  pre- 
served and  revolutions  become  veiy  rare.  In  this  way,  accord- 
ing to  Aristotle,  the  long  duration  of  the  Spartan  government 
is  to  be  explained.  Power  was  evenly  distributed  between  the 
higher  classes,  represented  by  the  Senate,  and  the  mass  of  the 
people,  who  chose  the  Ephors  by  public  vote.  Further  the 
power  of  the  kings  was  much  circumscribed,  and,  since  there 
were  two  of  them,  they  could  not  easily  come  to  an  agreement, 
and  consequently  only  rarely  became  tyrants. 

§  117.   Parties  and  Divisions 

Parties,  though  at  times  useful  in  the  struggle  of  the  weak 
against  the  strong,  are  often  what  Coco  calls  them,  a  means  of 
corrupting  the  individual,  and,  through  the  individual,  the  na- 


232  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§117 

tion.  This  is  seen  in  the  spectacle  offered  by  the  situation  in 
the  mediaeval  Italian  cities,  especially  in  Florence,  where  an 
exaggerated  and  intolerant  party  spirit  led  to  complete  political 
and  intellectual  exhaustion.  Another  example  of  this  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Argentine  Republic,  where  the  Unitaires  of  Buenos 
Ayres  brought  about  the  reaction  under  Rosas.  They  were  a 
party  of  typical  Utopians,  revolutionary  idealists,  who  wanted 
to  march  straight  on,  with  head  high,  not  deviating  a  hair's 
breadth  from  their  course.  Even  on  the  eve  of  a  battle  they 
were  taken  up  with  a  regulation,  a  formula,  or  a  pompous 
phrase.  It  would  be  impossible  to  find  men  with  better  logic, 
more  enterprise,  or  less  common  sense. ^ 

Since  parties  are  favorable  to  political  liberty,  the  more 
ground  they  gain  in  the  political  life,  the  less  important  do  secret 
political  societies  become.  These  latter  are  the  fruit  of  oppres- 
sion, since  oppression  turns  ideas  into  feelings,  and  these  in 
their  turn  produce  sects  and  societies.  Yet  it  is  certainly  to 
this  origin  that  modern  civilization  is  indebted  for  many  re- 
forms and  other  services  in  the  political  field.  It  is  enough  to 
recall  the  Carbonari  in  Italy,  the  Chartists  in  England,  the 
Hetaeria  in  Greece,  and  the  Nihilists  in  Russia.  The  ideal  of 
these  last,  it  is  true,  has  little  correspondence  with  the  feelings 
of  the  Russian  people,  since  what  Stepniak  said  of  an  earlier 
period  is  still  true,  that  in  the  popular  mind  the  Czar  and  God 
are  welded  together.^ 

In  Italy  the  "Fraternal  Hand,"  discovered  at  Girgenti  in 
1883,  was  originally  a  society  for  mutual  aid  in  case  of  sickness 
or  death.  But  soon  it  degenerated:  certain  duties  occasioned 
certain  crimes.  Everyone  was  bound  to  make  himself  respected 
for  the  honor  of  the  organization,  to  protect  the  women,  to 
revenge  the  injuries  of  his  comrades,  and  to  help  save  them  if 
they  were  accused.  They  ended  by  ordering  assassinations,  and 
executing  them  in  the  same  way  that  a  hunter  chases  a  hare. 
They  intimidated  juries,  and  prevented  outsiders  from  bidding 
at  the  public  auctions.  The  result  was  that  respectable  persons 
had  to  affiliate  with  them,  or  buy  protection  against  them  from 

*  Sarmiento,  "Civilisacion  y  Barbaria"  Buenos  Ayres,  1869. 

*  "La  Ruasie  sous  lea  Czars,"  Paris,  1880. 


§  119]  CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  CRIMES  233 

other  criminals.^  In  Ireland,  side  by  side  with  the  Land  League, 
which  served  the  country  with  loyalty  and  patriotism,  there 
rose  up  the  society  of  the  "Invincibles,"  which  numbered  not 
more  than  200  members  but  speedily  distinguished  itself  by  all 
sorts  of  agrarian  crimes. 

§  ii8.  Imitation 

We  have  seen  that  through  imitation,  criminality,  insanity, 
and  hallucination  become  epidemic  in  a  mob.  Hence  imitation 
becomes  a  powerful  factor  in  producing  an  insurrection.  This 
may  occur  on  a  large  scale,  one  nation  imitating  another  and 
producing  a  veritable  epidemic  of  revolutions.  This  is  what 
happened,  according  to  Ferrari,^  in  the  period  from  1378  to  1494, 
during  which  the  European  peoples  imitated  the  great  number  of 
Italian  uprisings  against  the  ancient  lords  —  at  Rome  under 
Rienzi,  at  Genoa  under  Adorno,  at  Florence  under  the  Ciompi, 
at  Palermo  under  the  Alessi,  and  at  Naples  under  the  Lazzari. 
In  this  period  took  place  the  insurrection  of  the  Hussites  in 
Bohemia,  the  revolts  of  the  working-people  in  the  free  cities  of 
Germany  (Worms,  Hall,  Liibeck,  Aix),  the  refusal  of  the  burgh- 
ers of  Ghent  to  pay  taxes,  the  Swiss  war  of  independence,  the 
uprisings  of  the  Swedish  peasants  under  Inglebert  and  the 
Croatian  peasants  under  Harvat,  and  in  England  the  religious 
movement  initiated  by  Wyclif.  The  men  of  1793  imitated,  or, 
rather,  aped,  the  heroes  of  Plutarch  (Buckle),  as  the  Napoleons 
imitated  the  Caesars.  In  1789  in  France  almost  all  the  depart- 
ments imitated  the  September  massacres  of  Paris,  and  later 
those  of  the  White  Terror.  Aristotle  names  as  one  of  the  causes 
of  revolts  the  neighborhood  of  countries  with  other  forms  of 
government.  The  nearness  of  the  oligarchical  Spartan  govern- 
ment often  caused  the  overthrow  of  the  democracy  in  Athens, 
and  vice  versa. 

§  119.   Epidemic  Ideals 

Many  ideals  spread  themselves  almost  like  epidemics.  So 
was  it  formerly  with  the  monarchical  ideal,  the  glory  of  one's 

^  Lestingi,  "L'Associazione  della  Fratellanza"  (Arch,  di  Psich.,  Vol. 
V,  p.  462). 

2  "Storia  delle  Rivoluzioni  d 'Italia,"  Milan,  1870. 


234  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  120 

own  king;  so  with  the  ideal  of  popular  sovereignty;  then  of 
nationality;  and  so  is  it  now  with  the  ideal  of  the  amelioration 
of  economic  conditions.  It  is  not  that  to-day  conditions  are 
worse  than  they  were  in  the  days  of  our  fathers.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  famines,  which  used  to  mow  down  their  millions, 
now  gather  in  only  a  few  hundreds  of  victims;  and  our  work- 
men to-day  own  more  shirts  than  many  a  proud  noble  of  an- 
tiquity. But  men's  needs  and  their  repugnance  to  the  labor 
necessary  to  satisfy  them  have  increased  in  proportion  to  the 
economic  betterment  that  has  been  going  on. 


§  120.  Historic  Traditions 

"Every  revolution,"  wrote  Machiavelli,  "lays  a  stepping- 
stone  for  another  one."  We  see  revolutions,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  repeat  the  form  of  revolutions  which  happened  even  at 
remote  periods.  Thus  the  Roman  tribunate  lived  again  in 
Rome  with  Rienzi  and  Baroncelh,  and  later  with  Ciceruacchio 
and  Coccapieller,  notwithstanding  many  differences  in  the  in- 
stitutions and  individuals.  The  revolutionary  tendencies  of  the 
Romagna  were  well  known  even  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  Dante 
refers  to  them  in  the  words:  "The  heart  of  the  Romagna  is, 
and  ever  will  be,  at  war  with  tyrants."  The  Paris  Commune 
imitated  the  revolution  of  1789,  as  '89  had  imitated  the  Jac- 
querie, while  the  National  Assembly  of  Paris  copied  the  old 
Provincial  Assemblies.  We  may  say  that  in  Paris  barricades 
have  become  a  decennial  habit,  like  military  revolutions  in 
Spain,  attempts  upon  the  life  of  the  Czar  in  Russia,  and  brig- 
andage in  Greece  and  Macedonia. 

A  last  proof  of  this  influence  of  traditions  is  that  those  revo- 
lutionary governments  perish  which  do  not  know  how  to  hold 
them  in  honor.  The  greater  the  difference  between  the  old  form 
of  government  and  the  new,  the  more  unstable  is  the  adherence 
of  the  people.  For  this  cause  those  revolutions  have  been  most 
fortunate  that  have  held  the  past  in  honor.  Thus  the  elder 
Brutus  kept  for  the  people  their  king,  under  the  name  of  "rex 
sacrificulus."     The  Caesars,  likewise,  retained  the  Tribunate, 


§  121]  CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  CRIMES  235 

the  Senate,  and  other  forms  of  the  repubhcan  government, 
even  to  the  extent  of  limiting  themselves  to  the  military  title, 
"Imperator"  (General).  Just  so  the  EngHsh  in  the  Magna 
Charta  professed  to  confirm  ancient  rights;  and  in  Italy  the 
Guelfs,  following  the  Ghibellines  in  Italy,  chose  the  captain  of 
the  people  from  among  the  nobles,  as  the  Ghibellines  had 
chosen  their  podesia.  This  did  not  escape  the  keen  intellect  of 
Machiavelli,  who  wrote:  "Whoever  would  reform  a  free  state 
must  preserve  the  shadow  of  the  old  forms;  in  changing  old 
institutions  the  human  mind  must  be  at  pains  to  make  the 
transformation  preserve  as  much  as  possible  of  that  which  is 
ancient." 

§  121.  Inappropriate  Political  Reforms 

Only  men  ignorant  of  human  nature,  or  excessively  despotic, 
would  make  decrees  not  necessitated  by  the  conditions  of  the 
moment,  and  destroy  old  institutions  to  replace  them  with  new, 
not  because  they  were  demanded,  but  because  they  were  in  use 
in  other  social  organisms.  By  such  means  a  discontent  with 
every  kind  of  reform  is  awakened,  and  since  the  new  is  not  based 
upon  the  old  there  results  an  active  antipathy  which  produces  a 
constant  succession  of  revolutions.  This  is  what  happened  to 
the  reforms  of  Arnaldo  and  Savonarola.  This  is  what  came  to 
pass  when  Rienzi  tried  to  bring  about  a  political  reform  which 
even  Cavour  could  not  carry  out  completely.  The  same  situa- 
tion, again,  was  repeated  in  France  in  the  attempt  of  Marcel, 
at  a  time  when  even  a  constitution  was  not  possible,  to  bring 
about  a  republican  federation,  with  proportional  taxation,  social 
and  administrative  unity,  general  political  rights,  national  au- 
thority substituted  for  royal,  and  Paris  as  the  head  of  France.^ 
"To  reform  everything,  is  to  destroy  everything,"  wrote  Coco 
with  regard  to  the  Neapolitan  revolution  of  1799.  In  Spain 
Charles  III.  was  able,  through  the  power  of  his  personality  and 
authority,  to  curb  the  power  of  the  clergy,  and  to  ameliorate 
the  condition  of  the  country.  But  no  sooner  had  he  fallen  from 
power  than  all  his  reforms  ceased  without  leaving  a  regret,  be- 

1  "Le  Vieux  Neuf,"  1877. 


236  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  122 

cause  they  were  premature.  In  1812,  in  1820,  and  in  1836, 
there  was  no  lack  of  ardent  reformers  in  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment, but  they  failed  because  they  were  not  in  touch  with  the 
feeling  of  the  people.  In  1814  and  in  1823  the  popular  indig- 
nation drove  out  the  Cortes,  and  Quin  tells  that  everywhere 
the  king  passed,  the  crowd  hurled  insults  at  the  liberals,  the 
constitution,  and  the  Cortes.^ 


§  122.   Religion 

Religion,  in  Asiatic  and  African  countries,  not  only  mixed 
with  politics,  but  was  itself  the  only  politics,  sometimes  revolu- 
tionary but  more  often  reactionary,  according  to  the  character 
of  the  religion.  In  India,  Nanak  (1469)  by  performing  miracles 
founded  the  religion  of  the  Siklis,  which  was  based  upon  mono- 
theism, the  abrogation  of  caste,  and  the  blessedness  of  Nirvana. 
The  founder  himself  made  few  proselytes,  but  under  Havogind, 
one  of  his  successors,  the  Sikhs  took  up  arms  against  the  Mussul- 
man fanaticism,  won  new  power  during  the  Mahratta  uprising, 
founded  a  sort  of  republic,  and  to-day  number  nearly  two 
millions.  Mahomet  put  an  end  to  fetichism,  conquered  Arabia, 
and  notwithstanding  his  ignorance  (hardly  one  of  the  suras 
of  his  Koran  has  any  sense  in  it),  he  produced  a  revolution  even 
in  the  field  of  science.  For  from  750  to  1250  a.  d.,  with  the 
ostensible  purpose  of  explaining  the  Koran,  the  Arabs  trans- 
lated the  Greek  authors  and  made  gigantic  encyclopaedic  com- 
pilations, which  were  disseminated  through  Europe.  As  if  to 
establish  once  for  all  the  parallelism  of  religion  and  politics,  the 
Convention  decreed  the  worship  of  the  Supreme  Being,  and 
organized  the  love-feast;  and  the  populace  put  at  its  head  the 
mad  Catherine  Theot,  who  preached  the  immortality  of  the 
body,  and  at  70  declared  that  she  was  about  to  become  young 
again.  The  Jacobins  favored  the  society  of  the  Theophilantropes, 
who  celebrated  their  festivals  in  Notre  Dame,  the  new  Temple  of 
Reason,  and  in  Saint  Roch,  the  Temple  of  Genius,  where,  before 
the  altars,  sentimental  verses  from  the  classics  were  sung  and 
feasts  were  celebrated  for  Socrates,  St.  Vincent,  Rousseau,  and 
»  "Memoirs  of  Ferdinand,"  1824. 


§  123]  CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  CRIMES  237 

Washington.  In  ancient  Israel  the  reaction  under  Jeroboam 
followed  the  reign  of  Solomon,  because  the  latter,  a  revolution- 
ary, at  least  in  art  and  industry,  had  anticipated  the  popular 
mind  by  several  centuries.^ 

Thus  a  reaction  is  sure  to  result  whenever  an  attempt  is  made 
to  set  aside  dominant  customs  and  superstitions.  One  of  the 
causes  of  the  uprising  of  the  Annamese  against  the  French  was 
the  lack  of  reverence  manifested  by  the  Europeans  for  the  ancient 
documents  which  were  held  in  such  honor  by  the  natives  (prob- 
ably because  they  thought  them  endowed  with  magic  power) 
that  they  had  societies  for  the  express  purpose  of  collecting  and 
caring  for  them.  All  the  insurrections  against  the  English  in 
India  have  been  caused  by  violations  of  the  customs  or  religion 
of  the  people.  Thus  the  Sepoy  rebellion  of  1857  was  caused  not 
by  the  violent  occupation  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Oude  on 
the  part  of  the  East  India  Company  so  much  as  by  the  preaching 
of  Protestant  missionaries,  and  their  over-zealous  attempts  at 
proselytism,  arousing  the  opposition  of  Brahmin  and  Mussul- 
man alike;  and  further  by  the  fact  that  the  Sepoys  were  required 
to  use  cartridges  smeared  with  pork-fat. 


§  123.  Economic  Influences 

The  influence  of  economic  causes  in  many  of  the  greatest 
revolutionary  movements  of  recent  centuries  has  been  demon- 
strated by  Loria  ^  with  incontestable  proofs. 

The  strife  of  classes  in  England  flared  up  when  the  nobility 
began  to  make  laws  that  were  to  the  interest  of  the  land-owners, 
and  prejudicial  to  manufacturing.  Such  was  the  situation  when 
the  middle  classes  gathered  about  Elizabeth  and  triumphed  with 
her  over  Mary  Stuart  and  her  nobles.  The  same  phenomenon 
was  repeated  with  Cromwell,  and  with  William  of  Orange.  The 
same  antagonism  manifested  itself  in  Germany  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  the  nobility,  represented  by  the  electoral  princes, 
having  exclusive  political  power,  passed  laws  hostile  to  capital 

1  R^nan,  "Etudes  d'Histoire  Israelite"  ("Revue  des  Deux  Mondes," 
Aug.,  1888). 

2  "La  Teoria  Economica  della  Costituzione  Politica,"  1885. 


238  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  124 

and  commerce,  levying  imposts  on  imports  and  exports.  In 
Italy  the  contests  of  the  Guelfs  and  Ghibellines  masked  the 
strife  between  the  manufacturers  and  the  feudal  nobility.^  In 
France  it  was  the  middle  classes,  long  powerless  against  king 
and  nobles,  and,  furthermore,  excluded  from  the  National  As- 
sembly, who  stirred  up  the  people  to  revolt,  and  put  to  flight  both 
court  and  aristocracy.  Even  modern  Nihilism,  according  to 
Roscher,  springs  from  the  contest  between  the  moneyed  and  the 
landed  classes.  It  came  especially  from  the  favor  shown  by 
the  commercial  classes  and  small  proprietors  to  the  ransom 
of  the  peasants,  to  the  detriment  of  the  nobility,  who  responded 
by  allying  themselves  with  disinherited  men  of  family  and  all 
the  other  enemies  of  the  middle  classes.  (Loria.)  Tschen  re- 
marks that  the  prosperity  of  China  springs  from  the  system  of 
canals  which  fertilizes  it,  and  that  every  emperor  who  neglects 
the  canals  speedily  falls.^ 


§  124.  Taxes  and  Changes  in  the  Currency 

Very  often  it  is  the  government  itself  that,  through  igno- 
rance of  economic  laws,  aggravates  the  disorder  already  existing, 
and  provokes  insurrection.  Thus  it  was  in  France,  where  one 
of  the  causes  of  the  revolution  of  1360  was  that  under  the 
Valois  the  value  of  gold  was  changed  26  times  in  a  single  year. 
Similarly,  in  Sicily,  according  to  Amari,  the  discontent  occa- 
sioned by  the  alteration  of  the  value  of  the  money  was  not 
without  influence  in  causing  the  Sicilian  Vespers.  (Loria.)  In 
1382  in  Paris,  the  tax  upon  vegetables  called  forth  the  uprising 
of  the  Maillotins.  In  1640  Mazarin  doubled  the  taxes  on  food- 
supplies  in  Paris,  and  the  people  built  the  barricades  of  the  26th 
of  August.  The  court,  becoming  terrified,  treated  with  them 
and  granted  a  diminution  in  the  taxes  of  more  than  12,000,000 
francs.    In  1639  the  people  of  Rouen  rose  in  insurrection  with 

*  This  hypothesis  is  certainly  a  bold  one,  but  does  not  lack  proof. 
For  example,  Bonaccorsi,  the  Podesta  of  Reggio,  who  had  shown  himself 
friendly  to  the  working  people,  was  deposed  after  eight  months,  by  the 
Ghibellines. 

»  "Revue  Scientifique,"  1889. 


§  126]  CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  CRIMES  239 

the  cry  of  "Death  to  the  gabeleursl"  but  the  uprising  was  ex- 
tinguished in  the  blood  of  the  rioters  themselves.  The  popular 
hatred  of  the  tax-agents  continued  to  be  actively  in  evidence, 
however,  until  the  government  finally  prohibited  the  use  of  the 
epithets,  "publican,"  "extortioner,"  and  "monopolist,"  against 
the  tax-collectors.  Even  when  a  tax  is  just,  that  it  should  aflfect 
one  class  more  directly  than  another  is  sufficient  to  stir  up  an 
insurrection.  Thus  the  tax  on  grain  at  Pavia  and  the  land-tax 
at  Florence  produced  revolts  which  were  inspired  by  the  middle 
classes. 

§  125.  Economic  Crises 

Industrial  and  commercial  crises  had  in  ancient  times  no  very 
great  influence  in  revolutions,  being  responsible  for  local  up- 
risings merely.^  This  was  the  case  in  Rome,  where,  according  to 
Carle,^  the  great  agitations  had  for  their  moving  cause  the  debts 
to  which  the  people  were  liable,  rather  than  the  agrarian  laws. 
During  the  fierce  contests  between  the  consulate  and  the  trib- 
unate, when  economic  prosperity  was  in  no  way  lacking,  Spu- 
rius  Cassius,  who  proposed  an  agrarian  law  by  which  the  com- 
mon property  was  to  be  divided  in  part  among  the  poor  citizens, 
not  only  was  not  supported  by  the  people,  but  was  put  to  death, 
simply  because  he  wished  that  the  Latin  allies  should  share  in 
the  division.^ 


§  126.    Pauperism.    Strikes 

It  is  our  own  time  alone  that  has  seen  the  great  political  and 
social  revolutions,  caused  by  the  disproportion  between  the  re- 
wards of  labor  and  those  of  speculative  capital,  and,  further, 
by  new  needs,  which  make  the  people  feel  more  keenly  than  ever 
before  the  reahty  of  their  sad  condition.  The  Darwinian  theory, 
it  is  true,  concedes  the  difference  between  individuals  and,  in 

^  Rossi,  "E  Fattore  Economico  nei  Moti  Rivoluzionari"  ("Archivio 
Psichiatria,"  IX   1). 

*  "Genesi  e  Sviluppo  delle  Varie  Forme  di  Convivenza  Civile  e  Poli- 
tica,"  Turin,  1878. 

»  Mommsen,  "Roman  History,"  I. 


240  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  12& 

consequence,  a  necessary  inequality  in  wealth.  But  the  senti- 
ment of  humanity,  which  received  its  first  breath  from  Christ 
and  which  time  has  not  been  able  to  weaken,  is  not  willing  to  per- 
mit, whatever  the  theory  of  Darwin  may  be,  that  a  man  who  is 
working  should  die  of  hunger,  or  that  a  man  who  is  willing  and 
able  to  be  of  service  should  look  for  work  in  vain.  When  one 
sees  that  thousands  of  peasants  in  Italy,  whose  interests  not  a 
single  representative  has  taken  up  in  Parliament,  are  compelled 
to  live  upon  spoiled  maize,  for  which  no  one  has  thought  out  a 
remedy;  when  one  sees  that  whole  districts  in  the  Alps  are 
decimated  by  goiture  and  cretinism,  simply  because  a  hundredth 
part  of  the  money  wasted  on  useless  monuments  is  not  spent  in 
supplying  these  people  with  wholesome  water;  when  one  thinks 
that  in  the  plains  of  Italy,  at  the  gates  of  the  two  largest  cities, 
malaria  rages  and  decimates  the  population;  ^  one  is  compelled 
to  conclude  that  if  the  peasants  protest  by  uprisings  and  strikes, 
the  responsibility  falls  upon  those  who  have  not  found  a  way 
to  remedy  the  evil.  In  France  the  strikes  of  1882  in  Roanne, 
Bessege,  Moliere,  and  other  industrial  centers  in  the  south,  and 
the  more  serious  troubles  in  Montceau-les-Mines  and  Lyons, 
were  the  result  of  a  socialistic  agitation  having  a  pronounced 
poUtical  character.  In  the  United  States  the  revolutionary 
Socialist  party,  which  has  its  center  in  Chicago,  seems  to  grow 
in  importance  constantly,  partly  from  economic  crises,  occa- 
sioned especially  by  railroad  speculation,  and  partly  from  the 
disregard  of  the  proletariat  on  the  part  of  both  the  leading 
pohtical  parties.  Now  it  is  to  this  organization  that  we  must 
attribute  a  great  part  of  the  strikes  which  occur  with  such 
frequency  (160  in  2  years). 

In  comparison  with  the  past,  our  own  age  shows  many  more 
uprisings  from  economic  than  from  military  causes.  Disturb- 
ances proceeding  from  economic  conditions  are  most  abundant 
in  the  countries  that  best  represent  modern  life,  like  France^ 
England,  and  Belgium;   whUe  it  is  the  military  rebellions  that 

j  CKit  of  5258  communes  in  Italy,  2813,  with  a  population  of  eleven 
and  a  half  millions,  are  scourged  with  malaria,  and  in  2025  other  com- 
munes, with  a  population  of  eight  millions,  there  are  a  certain  number 
?L^-^^-  (Bodio,  "Bulletin  de  I'Inatitut  International  de  Statistique," 
1887.) 


§127] 


CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  CRIMES 


241 


take  place  in  countries  like  Spain  and  Turkey,  which  represent 
a  bygone  age.  From  the  statistics  of  insurrections  during  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  we  get  the  following: 


Country 

Total 
Insurrections 

Number  having 

military 

causes 

Number  having 

economic 

causes 

Spain 
Turkey 
Belgium 
England 

19 

16 
15 

5 
9 
0 
0 

3 

1 
8 
8 

§  127.  Change  of  Environment 

We  find  in  this  connection  many  singular  contradictions. 
The  very  hot  climate  of  Egypt  makes  antirevolutionists  of  the 
Semites,  the  Fellahs,  and  even  of  the  Berbers,  who,  in  the  moun- 
tains of  Algeria,  are  in  a  continual  state  of  revolution,  so  that 
in  Algiers  they  show  the  graves  of  seven  beys,  all  named  and 
killed  in  a  single  day.  In  new  surroundings  the  Dutch  agricul- 
turists became  the  nomadic  Boers  of  South  Africa;  the  Norman 
hunters  became  bold  sea-rovers;  the  pastoral  Jews  became 
merchants;  and  the  strictly  conservative  Anglo-Saxons  became 
the  free  innovators  and  revolutionaries  of  North  America.  A 
good  government  can  succeed  in  preventing  the  disorders  that 
spring  from  difference  of  race,  especially  when  there  enters  the 
factor  of  the  attraction  which  large  bodies  of  people  have  for 
smaller  bodies  of  a  different  kind.  This  latter  is  one  of  the  most 
powerful  factors  in  the  fusion  of  the  Semitic  Sards  with  the 
Celtic  Piedmontese,  and  of  the  thoroughly  Italian  Corsicans 
with  the  French.  When  peoples  have  lived  in  a  state  of  isola- 
tion, the  first  crossings  (Dorians,  Romans)  provoke  violent 
disturbances;  but  later,  as  evolution  proceeds,  economic  and 
political  interests  become  more  important  than  questions  of 
race.  Thus  it  is  that  the  Poles  execrate  the  Russians  because 
of  their  despotism,  notwithstanding  their  common  Slavic  blood. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  people  of  the  Rhine  valley,  although 
German  in  the  main,  incline  more  toward  the  French  than 


242  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  128 

toward  the  nation  of  their  own  blood,  because  habit  and  com- 
mercial interest  count  for  more  with  them  than  race. 

The  dominance  of  different  factors  at  certain  periods,  as,  for 
example,  the  economic  factor  in  our  own  day,  is  explained  by 
the  fact  that,  in  sociology  as  well  as  in  chemistry,  certain  agents 
are  most  active  in  the  "nascent  state."  Physiology,  also, 
teaches  us  that  of  a  series  of  similar  stimuli  the  first  is 
most  strongly  felt.  Hence  it  is  that  the  influence  of  climate  is 
still  effective  even  after  being  hidden  or  weakened  by  the  in- 
fluence of  race.  For  this  reason  in  certain  countries,  as  in  Flor- 
ence, for  example,  the  configuration  of  the  land  has  much  less 
effect  upon  the  occurrence  of  uprisings  and  acts  of  violence 
than  it  formerly  had.  Holland  is  a  cold,  level  country,  and  for 
this  reason  is  naturally  antirevolutionary,  but  the  battle  with 
the  sea  and  with  foreign  oppressors  has  had  a  modifying  in- 
fluence. 

Religion  has  upon  the  whole  very  little  influence  upon  the 
course  of  cultural  evolution,  but  in  the  nascent  state  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly favorable  to  revolt  and  revolution.  New  religions  are 
almost  always  accompanied  by  a  real  revolution  in  morals  and 
character,  genuine  reforms  which  win  them  adherents  from 
among  respectable  people.  History  gives  us  examples  of  this 
in  the  rise  of  Buddhism,  Christianity,  and  Lutheranism,  and  we 
see  the  influence  still  to-day  in  the  Lazzarettists  and  in  certain 
Russian  sects. 

§  128.  Occasional  Causes 

Aristotle  aflBrms  that  oligarchies  commonly  go  to  pieces 
through  the  too  great  preponderance  of  certain  of  their  members, 
and  that  when  they  are  in  difficulties  they  try  to  extricate  them- 
selves by  raising  insurrections.  In  Syracuse,  he  tells  us,  the 
constitution  was  changed  because  of  a  love-affair  which  drove 
two  young  noblemen  and  their  followers  to  revolt.  Speaking  of 
tyrannicides  he  finds  that  they  are  most  frequently  caused  by 
personal  injuries.  Bacon  remarks  that  some  too  lively  expres- 
sions of  certain  princes  have  sometimes  been  the  spark  that 
kindled  a  revolt.    Thus  Galba  destroyed  himself  when  he  said. 


§  129]  CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  CRIMES  243 

"Legi  a  se  militem,  non  emi,"  ^  the  soldiers  no  longer  having 
any  hope  that  he  would  pay  them  for  their  votes.  Probus  was 
equally  lost  when  he  uttered  the  words,  "Si  vixero,  non  opus 
erit  amplius  Romano  Imperio  militibus,"  ^  for  the  soldiers 
immediately  revolted  against  him.  Even  in  our  own  century 
riots  have  originated  from  comparatively  trifling  causes.  Thus 
in  1821  a  revolt  broke  out  in  Madrid  because  the  king  either 
could  not  or  would  not  take  part  in  a  certain  procession.  In 
1867  Bucharest  rose  in  revolt  against  the  monopoly  of  tobacco, 
and  the  same  year  there  was  a  riot  in  Manchester  because  of  the 
arrest  of  two  Fenians.  In  1876  an  insurrection  took  place  in 
Amsterdam  because  of  the  abohtion  of  one  of  the  annual  fairs. 


§  129.  War 

Wars  are  often  the  cause  of  domestic  disturbances.  Greek 
history,  especially  the  history  of  the  oligarchies,  abundantly 
illustrates  this.  According  to  Soltyk,  the  victorious  wars 
which  the  Poles  waged  in  the  17th  and  18th  centuries 
formed  one  of  the  causes  of  the  downfall  of  Poland,  because 
they  bore  heavily  upon  the  poor  without  any  corresponding 
advantages,  and  increased  the  activity  of  the  conquered  peoples. 
The  Franco-Prussian  war  overcame  the  disinclination  felt  in 
many  circles  toward  the  idea  of  the  Empire  in  Germany.  This 
is  shown  in  the  statistics  of  the  cases  of  leze  majesty.  While 
the  sentences  for  this  offense  from  1846  to  1848  ran  as  high  as 
342,  and  in  1849  reached  369,  they  fell  to  132  and  193  in  1879 
and  1880.^  According  to  Renan,  the  two  great  products  of  the 
Hebrew  race,  the  Jewish  religion  and  the  Christian,  are  to  be 
attributed  not  solely  to  the  prophets,  but  also  to  the  perturba- 
tions produced  by  the  Assyrian  and  Roman  victories. 

It  must  be  added  that  such  occasional  causes  of  insurrections 
are  plainly  only  a  pretext,  affording  an  opportunity  for  the  out- 
break of  a  people  already  predisposed  to  revolt.  The  brutality 
of  a  soldier  and  the  lasciviousness  of  a  prince  gave  occasion 

1  That  he  chose  his  soldiers,  he  did  not  buy  them. 

*  "If  I  live,  the  Roman  Empire  will  have  no  further  need  of  soldiers." 

'  "Verbrecher  xmd  Verbrechen  in  Preussen,"  Berlin,  1884. 


244  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  129 

for  the  Sicilian  Vespers  and  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins. 
But  to  see  that  these  things  were  only  the  occasion  and  not  the 
whole  cause  it  is  only  necessary  to  recall  how  many  infamous 
crimes  on  the  part  of  conquering  kings  and  peoples  Italy  has 
suffered  to  go  unpunished. 


PROPHYLAXIS  AND  THERAPEUSIS  OF 
CRIME 

CHAPTER  I 

PENAL     SUBSTITUTES CLIMATE  —  CIVILIZATION  —  DENSITY 

SCIENTIFIC   POLICE  —  PHOTOGRAPHY  —  IDENTIFICATION 


I 


§  130. 

F  crime  is  often  really  a  fatal  consequence  of  certain  constitu- 
tions which  are  naturally  predisposed  to  it,  it  is  then  almost 
irremediable;  and  we  can  no  longer  hope  that  education  or  im- 
prisonment will  be  remedies  sufficient  to  combat  it.  But  we 
see  in  these  cases  the  causes  of  the  constant  recidivism  under 
every  penal  system;  and,  what  is  more  important,  we  get  a 
hint  of  the  proper  course  for  a  new  system  of  criminal  thera- 
peutics to  follow. 

It  is  no  longer  enough  to  repress  crime:  we  must  try  to  pre- 
vent it.  If  we  cannot  suppress  it,  we  can  at  least  seek  for  means 
to  decrease  the  influence  of  the  causes  we  have  been  studying, 
upon  occasional,  juvenile,  and  partial  criminals. 

For  this  purpose  we  must  use  what  Ferri  has  so  happily  called  ^ 
"penal  substitutes."  The  idea  is  that  the  legislator,  recogniz- 
ing and  studying  the  causes  of  crime,  shall  seek  by  preventive 
means  to  neutralize  them  or  at  least  decrease  their  effect. 

Thus  in  the  economic  sphere  freedom  of  exchange  prevents 
local  scarcity,  and  hence  removes  a  fertile  cause  of  theft  and 
riot.  The  lowering  of  customs  duties,  or,  better  still,  their  abo- 
lition, prevents  smuggling.  A  more  equitable  distribution  of 
taxation  prevents  frauds  against  the  state. )  The  substitution  of 
metallic  currency  for  the  more  easily  imitated  banknotes  reduces 

1  "Sociologie  Criminelle,"  Par/s,  1890. 


246  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§  131 

the  amount  of  counterfeiting;  better  salaries  for  public  officers 
diminish  the  chance  of  bribery  and  corruption;  while  the  dis- 
tribution of  wood  to  the  poor  stops  thefts  in  the  forests  better 
than  a  crowd  of  gendarmes.  Broad,  electric-lighted  streets  are 
better  than  policemen  to  prevent  theft  and  rape. 

In  the  political  sphere,  a  really  liberal  government,  like  that 
of  England,  prevents  anarchistic  insurrections  and  acts  of  re- 
venge, just  as  entire  liberty  of  the  press  prevents  corruption  of 
the  government  and  insurrections  of  the  governed. 

In  the  scientific  sphere,  autopsies  tend  to  prevent  poisoning 
in  general,  as  Marsh's  test  has  checked  arsenic  poisoning  in  par- 
ticular. So,  likewise,  steamships  have  abolished  piracy,  and 
railroads  have  cut  down  highway  robbery. 

In  the  legislative  sphere,  proper  laws  for  the  acknowledgment 
of  illegitimate  children,  for  investigating  their  parentage,  and 
for  indemnification  in  cases  of  the  breach  of  a  promise  of  mar- 
riage, will  diminish  abortions,  infanticides,  and  many  homicides 
committed  for  revenge.  In  the  same  way  civil  justice  at  a  low 
price  will  prevent  offenses  against  the  public  order,  juries  of 
honor  will  prevent  duels,  and  foundling  hospitals  will  prevent 
infanticides. 

In  the  religious  system,  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  and  the 
aboHtion  of  pilgrimages  would  cause  the  disappearance  of  many 
sexual  crimes. 

In  the  field  of  education,  the  abolition  of  atrocious  spectacles 
and  of  gambling  would  be  a  means  of  preventing  brawls  and 
crimes  of  violence. 


§  13 1.  Climate  and  Race 

Let  us  now  attempt  a  systematic  application  of  substitutes 
for  punishment,  following  the  classification  of  the  more  serious 
causes  of  crime. 

We  certainly  cannot  prevent  the  effect  of  a  hot  climate  upon 
crime,  but  we  ought  to  try  to  introduce  those  institutions  most 
fitted  to  temper  its  effects.  For  example,  prostitution  should 
be  regulated  in  such  a  way  as  to  diminish  sexual  excesses; 
baths  of  salt  or  fresh  water  should  be  made  accessible  to  the 


§  131]  PENAL  SUBSTITUTES,  ETC.  247 

whole  population,  as  was  the  case  in  ancient  Rome  and  is  now 
in  Calabria,  for  nothing  diminishes  the  exciting  effect  of  the 
heat  more  than  cold  water.  Then  we  ought  to  make  judicial 
punishments  more  swift  and  hence  better  adapted  to  affect 
impressionable  minds;  avoiding,  however,  a  pedantic  uniform- 
ity that  would  extend  the  same  laws  to  northern  districts, 
which  need  different  treatment,  especially  as  to  crimes  against 
persons  and,  above  all,  sexual  crimes. 

The  promoter  of  the  new  Italian  code  ^  deplores  as  a  very 
great  inconvenience  the  disparity  which  exists  in  the  judicial 
treatment  of  citizens  of  different  parts  of  the  kingdom,  but  he 
does  not  reflect  that  if  this  difference  did  not  exist  in  the  law, 
it  would  certainly  exist  in  something  much  more  substantial, 
namely,  in  public  opinion,  which  interprets  a  homicide  at 
Mazzara  quite  differently  from  the  way  in  which  it  is  inter- 
preted at  Aosta,  a  fact  that  is  sure  to  make  itself  felt  at  the 
trial.  An  attempted  rape  upon  a  twelve-year-old  girl  is  a 
different  thing  in  the  south,  where  sexual  maturity  comes 
early,  from  what  it  is  in  the  north,  and  the  question  of  the 
age  of  consent  must  be  differently  decided  for  different  climates; 
but  here  there  is  necessary  a  careful  investigation  as  to  whether, 
and  how  far,  sexual  maturity  is  accompanied  by  mental  matur- 
ity. We  have  now,  in  this  regard,  a  unified  law;  yet  it  cer- 
tainly has  not  served  to  diminish  the  number  of  the  crimes, 
but  only  to  make  the  law  itself  powerless  and  an  object  of  deri- 
sion. To  unify  the  law  in  reality,  and  not  upon  paper  simply, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  unify  the  morals,  birth-rate,  and  sexual 
characteristics,  and  more  than  that,  to  unify  the  climate,  soil, 
and  system  of  agriculture;  otherwise  the  law  would  remain 
like  the  ukase  which  commanded  the  Poles  to  change  their 
language.  It  is  possible  to  exterminate  a  people,  but  not  to 
take  away  their  language,  unless  it  is  possible  to  change  at  a 
stroke  their  entire  physical  constitution. 

It  proves  nothing  that  certain  countries  with  populations 
ethnically  different  have  a  uniform  law.  In  Corsica,  thanks  to 
the  juries,  the  French  law  remains  a  dead  letter.  In  Switzer- 
land, on  the  other  hand,  each  canton  has  its  own  penal  laws, 
1  Zanardelli,  "Progetto  del  Nuovo  Codice  Penale,"  Rome,  1886. 


248  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REJVIEDIES        [§  132 

and  no  inconvenience  has  resulted  from  it.  The  United  King- 
dom of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  too,  has  no  general  penal 
code,  but  a  series  of  special  laws  which  vary  for  the  three 
kingdoms.  The  same  situation  exists  in  the  United  States. 
And  these  are  the  freest  countries,  and  in  England,  at  least, 
crime  is  on  the  decrease. 

It  is  not  to  be  desired  that  the  specialization  be  extended  in 
detail  to  provinces  and  communes,  for  the  matter  is  one  that 
aflfects  large  ethnic  and  climatic  groups.  But  where  gypsies, 
for  example,  are  numerous,  it  would  be  absurd  to  treat  them 
as  citizens  of  Paris  or  London  would  be  treated,  and  try  them 
before  gypsy  juries. 

§  132.  Barbarism 

It  is  impossible  to  extirpate  barbarism  all  at  once;  but  its 
harmful  effects  can  be  lessened  by  clearing  1;he  forests,  those 
natural  fortresses  of  malefactors,  by  opening  new  roads,  and 
by  founding  towns  and  villages  in  the  wilder  places.  This  last 
was  the  course  taken  by  Liutprando  in  734  to  put  an  end  to 
the  brigandage  that  flourished  in  the  uninhabited  parts  of 
Modena.  To  these  measures  should  be  coupled  an  energetic 
repression  of  the  arrogance  of  the  powerful  and  the  revenge  of 
the  weak,  those  two  fertile  sources  of  brigandage.  By  a  ra- 
tional education,  superstition  and  prejudice  should  be  removed 
or  made  to  serve  against  crime,  as  Garibaldi  and  Napoleon 
attempted  to  have  them  serve.  Certain  institutions,  without 
utility  for  civilized  countries,  should  be  abolished;  such  are 
the  jury  system,  the  national  guard,  popular  election  of  judges, 
and  all  secret  societies,  especially  monastic  societies,  so  favor- 
able to  hatred  and  wrongdoing.  Emigration  should  be  watched 
and  regulated,  and  associations  of  criminals  prevented  or  de- 
stroyed as  soon  as  formed,  through  rewards  offered  to  their 
individual  members  for  information.  Receivers  of  stolen  goods 
and  their  accomplices,  those  natural  propagators  of  crime, 
should  be  severely  handled  by  the  aid  of  an  able  police  force. 
Finally,  honest  but  weak  citizens  should  be  encouraged,  or,  if 
that  is  not  possible,  terrified,  until,  placed  between  fear  of  the 


§  133]  PENAL  SUBSTITUTES,  ETC.  249 

criminals  and  fear  of  the  law,  they  shall  be  more  in  awe  of  the 
latter  than  of  the  former.  This  is  the  method  to  which  Manhes 
owes  the  destruction  of  4000  brigands  in  four  months. 

When  crime,  not  of  an  economic,  poUtical,  or  religious  char- 
acter, but  purely  ethnic,  flourishes  under  the  protection  of 
certain  free  institutions,  such  as  the  inviolability  of  domicile, 
the  prohibition  of  preventive  arrest,  the  freedom  of  association, 
jury  trial,  etc.,  it  becomes  indispensable  to  suspend  these 
privileges  until  the  epidemic  of  crime  is  suppressed,  as  is  done 
in  the  freest  countries,  England,  America,  and  Portugal.  It  is 
in  the  interest  of  civilization  not  to  allow  so  precious  a  posses- 
sion as  liberty  to  be  destroyed  by  misuse.  On  this  account, 
where  brigandage,  the  Camorra,  or  the  Mafia  takes  on  a  politi- 
cal aspect,  it  is  necessary  to  pass  the  most  severe  laws  to  pre- 
vent the  possibility  of  their  influencing  the  elections.  The 
elector  who  is  even  merely  suspected  of  participation  in  these 
associations  ought  to  lose  all  political  rights;  and  persons  ar- 
rested for  such  participation  should  be  sent  to  distant  locali- 
ties exempt  from  endemic  criminahty,  or,  better,  transported 
to  the  islands.  The  political  tribunate,  of  which  we  shall 
speak  later,  should  give  particular  attention  to  the  carrying 
out  of  these  measures.  Finally,  a  restriction  of  the  pardoning 
power,  especially  with  reference  to  organized  criminals,  would 
be  useful;  and  in  any  case  it  ought  not  to  be  possible  for  them 
to  return  to  the  district  which  is  their  natural  field  of  action. 


§  133.   Civilization 

The  harmful  eflFects  of  great  aggregations  of  population, 
which  are  those  of  ci\alization  pushed  to  the  limit,  can  be  pre- 
vented by  bringing  into  play  new  preventives  to  counteract 
the  new  weapons  placed  in  the  hands  of  crime. 

The  attempt  may  be  made  to  prevent  the  evil  effects  of  the 
great  centers  by  transporting  to  the  smaller  cities  institutions 
that  draw  numbers  of  persons  to  places  already  overcrowded, 
such  as  universities,  academies,  scientific  laboratories,  military 
colleges,  etc.  These  great  masses  of  people  cannot  be  suddenly 
dispersed,  but  they  can  be  clarified  and  the  emigration  of  the 


250  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  134 

unemployed  encouraged,  by  furnishing  free  transportation  if 
necessary.  If  the  population  increases  more  than  its  food- 
supply,  the  practice  of  Neo-Malthusianism  must  be  energeti- 
cally disseminated. 

A  certain  Englishman^  (a  citizen,  that  is  to  say,  of  the 
country  which  is  the  most  scrupulous  about  personal  liberty) 
proposes  that  those  houses  which  criminals  make  their  habitual 
resort  should  be  closely  watched  and,  if  necessary,  suppressed, 
so  that  these  elements  of  the  population  shall  not  be  able  to 
meet,  and  hence  may  become  harmless.  He  proposes,  further, 
to  visit  with  severe  penalties  what  he  calls  the  "capitalists  of 
crime,"  —  the  receivers  of  stolen  goods,  who  almost  always  go 
unpunished. 

In  order  to  prevent  the  increase  of  crime  through  immigra- 
tion, a  sort  of  selection  should  be  practiced,  as  is,  to  some  extent, 
done  in  the  United  States.  Only  those  should  be  accepted  as 
immigrants  who  are  sound  and  respectable,  and  have  some 
means  and  manual  skill.  It  is  by  virtue  of  such  a  selection 
as  this,  together  with  judicial  investigations,  that  France  has 
been  able  in  recent  years  to  purify  the  stream  of  immigration 
and  obtain  a  decrease  in  crime.^ 

§  134.  Modem  Police  System 

We  have  hitherto  carried  on  our  police  system  very  much  as 
war  was  made  in  the  heroic  ages,  when  the  cleverness  or  mus- 
cular strength  of  single  individuals  alone  decided  the  victory. 
We  have  very  able  police  officers,  —  able  as  Ulysses  and  Achil- 
les were  in  their  battles;  but  we  have  no  Moltke,  no  one  corre- 
sponding to  a  general-staff  officer,  to  make  use  in  his  campaigns 
against  crime  of  the  resources  offered  him  by  study  of  statistics, 
criminal  anthropology,  etc.,  which  would  multiply  his  personal 
talent  by  the  enormous  forces  placed  at  his  disposal  by  sci- 
ence. The  telegraph,  for  example,  applied  to  railroad  trains, 
the  railroad  itself,  the  telephone,  —  these  are  instruments 
placed  in  our  hands  to  be  used  against  the  new  tools  that  civili- 
zation has  furnished  to  crime.  We  may  add  to  these  a  well- 
arranged  collection  of  photographs  of  criminals. 

»  EQll,  "Criminal  Capitalist,"  1872.  «  Joly,  op.  cU. 


§  135]  PENAL  SUBSTITUTES,  ETC.  251 

In  America  the  companies  that  insure  against  burglary  have 
introduced  electric  burglar-alarms.  In  various  American  cities, 
likewise,  the  police  are  furnished  with  signal  boxes,  so  that  in 
case  of  necessity  a  policeman  can  summon  assistance  without 
leaving  his  beat.  Guillar  proposes  the  association  of  all  nations 
for  the  arrest  of  criminals,  with  uniform  extradition  treaties 
and  a  sort  of  international  police,  (who  shall  exchange  photo-  \ 
graphs  of  criminals  and  give  notice  of  those  who  are  going  to  ' 
foreign  countries,  whether  voluntarily  or  because  deported  — 
with  the  exception  of  those  rare  cases  where  the  criminal  has 
learned  to  support  himself  by  a  trade.  For  this  purpose  an 
international  criminal  register  and  an  international  bureau  of 
information  would  be  necessary.^ 

In  England  there  has  been  introduced  the  corps  of  detectives, 
and  in  Austria  the  corresponding  organization  of  "Vertraute," 
who  form  the  aggressive  force  in  the  fight  against  crime. 
These  take  up  the  search  for  the  criminal  and  push  it  to  the 
end,  making  use  of  all  the  means  at  their  disposal  —  railroad, 
telegraph,  press  —  but  especially  a  knowledge  of  the  features, 
and,  what  is  not  so  easily  changed,  the  look  of  criminals,  and 
of  the  collections  of  photographs  of  which  I  have  spoken.^ 


§  135.  Methods  of  Identification 

If  a  good  police  commissary  in  Italy  wants  to  put  his  hand 
upon  the  unknown  author  of  some  crime,  he  has  recourse  to 
his  memory,  to  photographs,  and  also  to  the  clumsy  criminal 
register  instituted  a  few  years  ago.  But  in  a  kingdom  as  large 
as  Italy,  with  such  rapid  means  of  communication,  thousands 
of  individuals  escape  observation.  The  best  memory  would 
not  be  much  help.  Delinquents  easily  succeed  in  eluding  the 
police  by  changing  their  names,  or,  if  arrested,  give  them  a 
false  idea  of  their  antecedents  by  taking  the  name  of  some 
respectable  person.  From  this  one  sees  how  necessary  it  is  to 
have  means  of  identifying  accused  persons  with  scientific  accu- 

*  "Rev.  de  Disc.  Career.,"  Bulletin  Intemat.,  1876. 
2  In  Vienna  in  nine  months  of  the  year  1872,  150  "Vertraute"  arrested 
4950  delinquents,  among  whom  were  1426  thieves  and  472  swindlers. 


252  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  135 

racy;  and  of  all  the  systems  proposed  for  this  purpose  that  of 
Bertillon  is  undoubtedly  the  best.^  At  the  prefecture  of  the 
Paris  police,  to  which  he  was  attached,  there  were  preserved 
several  thousand  photographs  of  delinquents,  but  it  became 
increasingly  difficult  to  make  use  of  these  as  the  number  of 
delinquents  increased.  For  this  reason  Bertillon  proposed  to 
classify  criminals  according  to  the  measurements  of  certain 
parts  of  the  body  which  could  be  taken  as  invariable.  These 
are:  the  height,  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  head,  the  length 
of  the  middle  finger  of  the  left  hand,  the  length  of  the  left  foot, 
and  the  length  and  circumference  of  the  left  forearm.  Suppos- 
ing the  records  to  be  divided  up  into  series  on  the  basis  of  these 
measurements,  it  is  evident  that  it  would  be  necessary  in  iden- 
tifying a  criminal,  only  to  examine  the  photographs  of  a  single 
series,  or  at  most  to  add  the  series  on  each  side,  as  the  error 
in  measurement  could  only  be  very  small. 

This  system  of  Bertillon's  is  based  upon  the  fact  that  when 
the  human  body  has  reached  its  complete  development,  it 
remains  almost  invariable,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  find 
two  individuals  completely  alike.  By  the  use  of  this  method 
Bertillon  obtained  3017  identifications  between  1883  and  1890. 
This  was  the  first  trial  of  "Bertillonage."  After  a  time  it  was 
perceived  that  it  was  possible  to  make  the  identifications 
by  the  measurements  alone,  without  the  aid  of  photographs. 
Thus  far  the  identification  had  an  essentially  judicial  charac- 
ter: it  served  to  guarantee  to  the  magistrate  the  identity  and 
the  antecedents  of  the  individual  undergoing  trial.  But  a  new 
advance  allowed  the  utilization  of  this  method  by  the  police, 
in  furnishing  them  with  the  data  necessary  to  recognize  a  delin- 
quent still  at  liberty  and  concealed  under  a  false  name.  This 
Bertillon  obtained  with  "speaking  photographs,"  that  is, 
photographs  accompanied  by  a  minute  description  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  his  particular  physical  characteristics. 

1  Bonomi,  "Project  of  an  Instrument  for  Identifying  the  Person," 
1892;  Compagnone,  " II  Casellario  Giudiziario,"  Rome,  1895;  A.  Bertillon, 
"Identification  Anthropometrique,  Instructions  Signaletiques,"  Melun, 
1893;  Id.,  "La  Photographie  Judiciare,  etc.,"  1890;  Lombroso,  "Lea 
Applications  de  1' Anthropologic  Criminelle,"  Paris,  1892.  [But  see 
Ottolenghi,  "Polizia  Scientifica,"  Turin,  1910,  who  describes  the  latest 
improvements  on  Bertillon's  system.  —  Transl.] 


§  136]  PENAL  SUBSTITUTES,  ETC.  253 

With  this  same  object  the  author  has  constructed  an  im- 
proved "Tachy-Anthropometer,"  a  contrivance  by  which  the 
necessary  measurements  of  the  body  and  skull  may  be  quickly 
made,  and  which  also  permits  the  lateral,  transverse,  and 
horizontal  curves  of  the  skull  to  be  taken  and  recorded  auto- 
matically by  means  of  an  electric  pen.  This  latter  system  has 
the  great  advantage  that  the  procedure  is  purely  mechanical, 
and  that  the  sources  of  error  are  much  less  numerous  than 
in  the  regular  Bertillon  system;  and  while  in  the  millimetric 
measurements  the  only  means  of  verifying  their  accuracy  is  to 
repeat  them,  where  the  cranial  outlines  are  taken,  their  pre- 
cision can  be  tested  by  their  direct  superposition  upon  the  head 
of  the  subject.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  in  the  ordinary 
system  the  points  of  difference  between  individuals  are  very 
limited,  while  in  the  new  system  they  are  very  numerous. 


§  136.  The  Press 

The  police  force  must  also  avail  itself  systematically  of  the 
services  of  the  press.  For  the  press  is  an  instrument  of  civili- 
zation as  well  as  of  crime,  and  can  be  neither  suppressed  nor 
restricted  without  injury  to  true  freedom.  The  thing  to  be 
done,  obviously,  is  to  utilize  it  for  the  protection  of  society. 
In  Switzerland  the  governmental  authority  has  a  sort  of  hand- 
book containing  the  photographs  and  biographies  of  the  prin- 
cipal Swiss  criminals.  In  Germany  it  is  the  custom  to  insert 
in  the  more  popular  newspapers  the  description  of  the  criminals 
most  sought  for,  their  photographs,  and  the  amount  of  the  reward 
promised  for  their  apprehension.  At  Mainz  there  is  a  news- 
paper published  in  three  languages,  French,  German,  and  Eng- 
lish ("Moniteur  International  de  Pohce  Criminelle,"  "  Inter- 
nationales Kriminalpolizeiblatt,"  "  International  Criminal  Police 
Times"),  which  is  published  weekly  by  ^he  police  counselor,  and 
contains  the  portraits  and  marks  of  the  criminals  sought.  At 
Cairo  in  Egypt  there  is  published  every  Thursday  a  newspaper 
in  Arabic,  "Vagai  'u  'bubulis,"  or  Police  News,  edited  by  the 
bureau  of  police,  which  contains  the  portraits  of  the  homicides 
and  counterfeiters  arrested,  with  notes  of  their  crimes  and 


254  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  137 

minute  descriptions.  Thus  the  press,  through  that  very  pub- 
licity which  has  been  heretofore  a  source  of  blackmail,  fraud, 
and  libel,  may  become  a  means  of  social  defense. 

§  137.  Plethysmography 

But  there  is  something  better  in  prospect.  We  have  abolished 
torture,  and  we  may  congratulate  ourselves  upon  it.  But 
though  this  brutal  means  of  investigation  more  often  deceived 
than  gave  light,  it  is  still  an  evil  that  nothing  better  has  arisen 
to  take  the  place  left  empty  by  its  abolition. 

Now  the  knowledge  of  biological  anomalies  (anesthesia, 
analgesia,  left-handedness,  abnormal  field  of  vision),  and  of 
psychological  anomalies  (the  cruelty,  vanity,  and  improvidence 
of  criminals),  may  help  to  fill  up  the  gap;  so  also,  other  data, 
like  obscene  and  vindictive  tattooing,  etc.  Despine  has  al- 
ready suggested  the  arrest  of  habitual  criminals  when  they 
boast  that  they  are  going  to  commit  a  crime,  knowing  that  in 
these  cases  the  act  follows  close  upon  the  word.  We  have  al- 
ready (in  the  first  volume  of  my  "Homme  Criminel")  seen  how 
the  plethysmograph  of  Mosso  is  able,  without  affecting  the 
health  and  without  any  pain,  to  penetrate  into  the  most  secret 
recesses  of  the  mind  of  the  criminal.^  I  have  myself  made  use 
of  this  instrument  in  a  complicated  case,  proving  that  a  certain 
well-known  criminal  was  not  guilty  of  the  crime  with  which  he 
was  accused,  but  was  guilty  of  a  theft,  at  first  connected  with 
him  by  this  test  alone,  but  later  brought  home  to  him  by 
judicial  investigation. 

^  The  plethysmograph  is  a  device  for  testing  variations  in  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  and  rests  for  its  usefulness  upon  the  way  the  circulation  re- 
sponds to  what  is  passing  in  the  mind.  —  Transl. 


CHAPTER   II 

PREVENTION   OF   SEXUAL   CRIMES  AND   OP  FRAUD 
§138. 

SEXUAL  crimes  ^  and  crimes  of  fraud  are  the  specific  crimes 
of  advanced  civilization.    How  shall  they  be  remedied? 

§  139.  The  Prevention  of  Sexual  Excesses 

Divorce  is  a  powerful  means  of  preventing  a  great  many 
cases  of  adultery  and  many  of  those  other  sexual  crimes  that 
are  among  the  saddest  phenomena  of  modern  criminaUty.  By 
the  statistics  of  Ferri  ^  we  see  the  convictions  for  adultery  in 
France  increased  from  1864  to  1867,  while  in  the  same  period 
in  Saxony,  where  divorce  existed,  they  decreased;  in  the  Ger- 
man districts  where  the  French  law  was  in  force,  there  were 
many  more  trials  and  separations  than  in  the  other  districts, 
and  the  sexual  crimes  were  more  numerous.  In  France  in  the 
period  when  divorce  did  not  exist,  from  1818  to  1874,  poison- 
ings among  married  people  were  more  frequent  than  among  the 
unmarried  (45  :  30),  but  in  following  years,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  became  fewer.  In  Italy  it  is  reckoned  that  no  fewer  than 
46  homicides  a  year  occur,  perpetrated  with  the  sole  object  of 
putting  an  end  to  a  union  that  has  become  insupportable.  I  have 
told  in  my  "Homme  Criminel"  (Vol.  II)  the  case  of  the  Klein- 
roth  family,  where  the  sons  and  their  mother  killed  the  father 
because  of  his  continual  brutal  ill-treatment.  In  France  Mme. 
Godefroy,  43  years  of  age,  had  won  the  respect  and  affection 
of  the  whole  district  for  the  courage  with  which  she  had  brought 
up  nine  children,  and  had  borne  for  15  years  the  ill-treatment  of 
her  drunken  husband;    but  one  day,  when  he  threatened  her 

»  Penta,  "I  Pervertimenti  Sessuali,"  etc.,   1893;  Viazzi,  "Reati  Sessu- 
ali,"  1896;   Krafft-Ebing,  "Psyschopatia  Sexualis,"  1899. 
2  "  Archivio  di  Psichiatria,"  II,  500;  XII,  550. 


256  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  139 

with  a  knife,  at  the  end  of  her  patience,  she  killed  him  with  an 
iron  spade;   she  gave  herself  up  and  was  acquitted. 

As  regards  sexual  crimes  in  general,  a  considerable  number 
are  to  be  attributed  to  individual  congenital  tendencies,  but 
another  part,  and  this  the  greater,  comes  under  the  category 
of  occasional  crimes  due  to  the  influence  of  the  comparative 
barbarism  of  the  country  districts,  and  to  passions  which  have 
no  other  outlet,  on  account  of  the  absence  of  prostitution  and 
the  difficulty  of  marriage;  for  these  crimes  are  especially  to  be 
observed  in  certain  mountainous  countries  where  prostitution 
does  not  exist,  and  among  soldiers  and  priests. 

But  the  majority  of  these  crimes  are  due  to  the  effect  of 
civilization.  We  have  a  proof  of  this  in  the  fact  of  their  increase 
in  the  western  provinces  of  Prussia,  where  the  civilization  is 
highest,  and  in  the  fact  that  the  sexual  assaults  upon  children 
have  increased  fivefold  in  50  years,  while  those  upon  adults 
have  decreased.  In  France  these  crimes  numbered  305  in  1826, 
and  by  1882  had  reached  932.  The  rapes  upon  children  increased 
from  138  to  791,  an  increase  of  500%.  In  England  they  num- 
bered 167  in  1830-34;  972  in  1835-39;  and  1395  in  1851-55. 
In  Prussia,  according  to  Oettingen,  sexual  misdemeanors  in- 
creased between  1855  and  1869  from  225  to  925;  while  crimes 
of  the  same  nature  rose  from  1477  to  2945.  Modern  civilization 
exercises  a  still  more  direct  influence.  By  diffusing  education 
it  increases  the  irritation  of  the  nervous  system,  which,  in  its 
turn,  demands  stimulations  and  pleasure  that  must  always 
be  new  and  more  and  more  keen.  It  seems  that  the  more  a 
man's  pyschic  activity  increases,  the  more  the  number  of  his 
needs  and  his  taste  for  pleasures  grow,  especiallj^  when  his  mind 
is  not  occupied  with  great  scientific  and  humanitarian  ideas, 
and  when  his  wealth  permits  an  over-abundant  diet.  Of  all 
these,  the  sexual  need  is  certainly  that  which  is  most  keenly 
felt,  and  this  is  that  which,  throughout  the  whole  animal  world, 
is  in  the  closest  connection  with  the  cerebral  system.  This 
relationship  is  sometimes  one  of  antagonism,  as  seen  in  the 
great  fecundity  of  fish  and  the  lower  insects,  the  lesser  fecundity 
of  the  higher  animals,  and  the  sterility  of  the  worker  ants  and 
bees,  and  of  great  men;   and  sometimes  one  of  parallelism,  as  is 


§  139]  PEEVENTION  OF  SEXUAL  CRIMES  257 

proved  by  the  greater  psychic  force  at  the  period  of  virility  and 
by  the  exuberance  of  health,  life,  and  intelligence  to  be  observed 
among  chaste  men. 

This  insatiability  with  regard  to  pleasure  in  the  cases  of  in- 
dividuals of  high  culture,  together  with  the  abundance  of  op- 
portunity, explains  to  us  why  the  crimes  against  children 
increase  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  crimes  against  adults;  and  it 
further  explains,  together  with  the  lack  of  divorce  and  the  fact 
that  marriages  between  old  people  are  constantly  becoming 
more  numerous,  the  apparently  strange  fact  that  this  crime, 
unlike  all  others,  is  most  common  in  the  case  of  married  people. 
In  France  the  unmarried  furnish  41.5  of  the  rapes  of  children, 
and  the  married  men  45.9:  while  in  other  offenses  against 
persons  the  figures  are  48.1  for  the  unmarried,  and  40.4  for  the 
married. 

We  may  add  that  because  of  the  continued  development  of 
foresight,^  the  more  intelligent  people  are  always  seeking  to 
engender  the  fewest  children  possible,  and  hence  incline  toward 
pederasty.  Thus  it  is  that  I  have  observed  among  the  more 
intelligent  mountaineers,  at  Ceresole,  for  example,  marriage 
postponed  until  the  age  of  40,  in  order  to  have  fewer  children; 
while  in  the  mountains  where  cretinism  is  most  abundant,  in 
the  Valley  of  Aosta,  the  marriages  produce,  at  Donnaz,  for 
example,  6.5  children,  and  at  Chatillon,  5.1,  nearly  double  the 
average.^ 

It  is  not  too  bold  a  hypothesis  to  say  that  marriage,  where 
wealth  and  influence  are  preferred  to  beauty  and  health,  is  a 
transaction  in  which  the  choice  is  made  directly  contrary  to 
the  laws  of  natural  selection;  and  that  it  consequently  becomes 
hateful  and  leads  not  only  to  desertion  of  the  marriage  bed, 
but  also  to  hatred  and  disgust  at  the  entire  sex,  and  in  conse- 
quence to  a  search  for  sexual  gratification  contrary  to  nature. 
This  latter  certainly  would  not  be  so  common  if  sexual  needs 
could  be  freely  satisfied  with  a  beloved  person  of  the  opposite 
sex.  Civilization,  in  its  turn,  materially  influences  rapes  upon 
the  immature,  by  multiplying  workshops,  mines,  schools,  and 

1  Ferri,  "Socialismo  e  Criminality,"  1883. 

2  "  Inchiesta  Agraria,"  VIII,  p.  160. 


258  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  141 

colleges;  and  thus  furnishes  numerous  occasions  for  contact 
between  adults,  often  unmarried,  and  the  immature,  among 
whom  it  is  enough  that  one  should  be  immoral,  in  order  to 
corrupt  hundreds.  This  all  explains  why  the  workmen,  who 
furnish,  according  to  Fayet,  30%  of  the  general  criminality, 
furnish  35%  of  the  rapes  upon  children. 


§  140.  Legislative  and  Administrative  Measures 

It  is  very  easy  to  follow  the  old  military  method  and  say: 
If  crimes  increase,  let  us  also  increase  the  penalties,  and  we 
shall  put  a  stop  to  them.  This  is  an  exaggeration.  It  is,  however, 
true  that  Ferri  also  exaggerates  when,  by  a  series  of  statistics 
for  France,  covering  53  years,  he  tries  to  prove  the  ineffective- 
ness of  punishment,  because  the  continual  condemnations 
coincide  with  a  continual  increase  in  the  number  of  crimes. 
But  if  we  examine  these  tables  we  shall  see  that  if  there  has 
been  an  increase  in  the  reformatory  penalties  visited  upon  those 
guilty  of  rapes  upon  adults,  at  the  expense  of  severer  punish- 
ments (56.  4:  32.2  =  1.75),  on  the  other  hand,  the  excess  of 
sentences  to  prison  over  those  to  hard  labor  has  diminished 

much  more  (  r^r^  :  ^^  =  2.34  |,  a  result  which  proves  an  in- 
crease in  the  severity  of  the  penalty  on  the  whole.  Now,  crimes 
against  adults  having  diminished,  it  is  clear  that  this  severity 
has  had  a  certain  influence.  We  find  another  proof  in  the  table 
of  rapes  upon  children.  Here  it  seems  that  the  lighter  penalties 
have  increased  at  the  expense  of  those  that  are  more  severe. 
Here,  then,  the  severity  has  decreased;  and  we  find  that  at 
the  same  time  the  number  of  these  crimes  in  France  has  in- 
creased.    The  penalty,  then,  is  not  without  its  influence. 

Yet  it  is  incontestable  that  in  this  case  we  must  look  to 
preventive  measures  much  more  than  to  punitive  ones.  For 
this  reason  the  schools,  and  the  workshops  where  children  are 
employed,  should  be  supervised.  An  excellent  substitute  for 
penal  measures  in  the  case  of  pederasty,  for  example,  is  to  put 
directoresses  or  married  women  as  supervisors  in  the  work- 
shops where  children  work  at  night;    and  this  measure  would 


§  140]  PREVENTION  OF  SEXUAL  CRIMES  259 

be  the  more  easily  put  in  practice,  since  it  would  be  economi- 
cally advantageous.  It  would  also  be  necessary  to  prohibit 
child-labor  in  the  mines,  as  is  done  by  the  French  law  of  1874 
with  regard  to  the  labor  of  children  —  a  law  which  has  been 
in  force  since  1875  and  coincides  with  a  diminution  in  the  num- 
ber of  rapes  upon  children  since  1876.  Another  remedy  would 
certainly  be  the  diffusion  of  prostitution  in  the  agricultural 
districts,  and  especially  in  localities  where  there  are  a  large 
number  of  sailors,  soldiers,  and  laborers.  It  is  especially  neces- 
sary to  make  sexual  intercourse  accessible  to  all  dissolute- 
minded  young  men. 

No  law  can  be  devised  to  prevent  mercenary  marriages, 
which,  because  of  their  origin,  easily  become  repugnant.  But 
at  least  a  greater  facility  of  divorce  can  be  granted,  that  the 
antipathy  may  not  reach  the  point  of  leading  to  hatred  and 
crime.  It  is  evident  that  divorce  is  destined  to  diminish  the 
number  of  crimes  of  adultery.  In  the  first  place,  it  permits  a 
legitimate  sexual  satisfaction  to  husbands,  who  if  young  and 
merely  separated  from  their  wives  would  certainly  procure 
illegitimate  satisfaction;  and,  in  the  second  place,  it  threatens 
the  unmarried  adulterer,  who  now  runs,  at  most,  the  risk  of  a 
duel,  with  the  far  greater  danger  of  a  forced  marriage  with  an 
unchaste  woman.  In  the  present  state  of  things  the  injured 
husband,  if  he  has  recourse  to  the  courts,  runs  much  more  risk 
and  is  subjected  to  more  annoyances,  than  the  true  culprit, 
on  account  of  the  publicity  and  ridicule  to  which  he  is  subjected, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  chance  of  the  eventual  acquittal  of  the 
offender.  Further,  divorce  is  a  preventive  against  crimes  of 
vengeance  on  the  part  of  the  injured  husband  (crimes  frequent 
on  the  stage,  though  rare  in  real  life),  and  against  the  new 
French  remedy  of  acid-throwing  it  would  be  much  better  and 
more  effective  than  all  the  efforts  of  the  courts.  Even  when 
the  author  of  the  crime  is  acquitted  by  the  court  and  absolved 
by  public  opinion,  he  remains  none  the  less  a  criminal;  and 
the  killing  of  an  adulterer,  however  culpable  he  may  be,  is 
always  a  kind  of  wild  justice,  left  in  the  hands  of  the  injured 
person  by  a  custom  still  entirely  savage.  Now  it  is  to  be  noted 
that,  according  to  Dumas,  who  ought  to  know  something  about 


260  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  140 

it,  these  murders  occur  oftener  in  legitimate  marriages  than  in 
cases  of  concubinage,  because  it  is  in  the  former  that  the  need 
of  avenging  the  violation  of  one's  own  legitimate  property  is 
most  keenly  felt. 

I  have  shown  in  a  previous  chapter  that  there  are  certain 
perverse  natures  which  are  irresistibly  drawn  toward  one  another. 
The  marriage  of  such  is  happy  for  the  participants,  however 
harmful  for  society.  But  what  of  those  cases  where  one  of 
these  depraved  beings  is  united  with  a  respectable  person,  when 
a  satyr  like  the  Frenchman  Ferlin,  who,  by  7  servants  besides 
his  wife,  had  54  children  and  ended  by  ravishing  one  of  his  own 
daughters,  is  married  to  a  chaste  and  sober  woman?  From 
such  cases  we  see  new  causes  and  forms  of  crime  arise.  The 
ancient  jurists,  who  were  anything  but  considerate  to  women, 
admitted  that  a  woman  who  was  beaten  by  her  husband  could 
not  be  accused  if  afterward  she  committed  adultery.^  Plainly, 
the  ancients  saw  in  adultery  a  preventive  against  marital 
cruelty.    Now,  divorce  would  be  a  better  preventive. 

But  divorce  alone  is  not  sufficient.  It  is  necessary  to  insist 
upon  investigation  into  the  question  of  paternity,  and,  above 
all,  reparation  for  the  woman  seduced.  If  we  cast  a  glance  at 
our  society  we  see  there,  as  regards  the  sexual  instinct,  two 
opposite  currents.  On  the  one  side  sexual  desires  increase  as 
intelligence  and  civilization  increase  —  hence  the  great  number 
of  educated  offenders;  and  on  the  other  side,  the  means  of 
satisfying  this  need  becomes  more  and  more  difficult.  It  is 
from  this  fatal  situation  that  sexual  crimes  arise.  But  the 
situation  is  aggravated  by  that  prejudice  which  makes  us 
regard  that  as  a  grave  offense  for  one  sex,  which  for  the  other  is 
not  even  a  misdemeanor;  but  which  makes  the  sexual  act  enough 
of  a  fault  in  a  young  man  to  drive  him  to  satisfy  this  imperious 
need,  in  his  more  erotic  moments,  by  acts  contrary  to  nature. 
Hence  we  see,  added  to  the  congenital  perverts  who  are  the 
inevitable  effect  of  degeneracy,  numbers  of  accidental  perverts 
who  need  not  have  been  made  such. 

]  "Si  vir  uxorem  atrociua  verberaverit  atque  uxor  aufugiat  et  adul- 
tenum  committat,  non  poterit  earn  maritus  accusare"  (Tiraqueau,  "In 
Leg.  Connub."). 


§  141]  PREVENTION  OF  SEXUAL  CRIMES  261 

When,  then,  a  true  balance  comes  to  be  struck  between  the 
demands  of  nature  and  those  of  morahty  and  duty,  we  shall 
see  crimes  of  this  character  rapidly  diminish.  For  this  purpose 
it  is  necessary  to  make  marriage  less  mercenary,  to  make  legiti- 
mate sexual  relations  easier,  to  make  maternity  always  respected, 
and  especially  to  make  obligatory  that  reparation  to  the  woman 
which  the  law  now  not  only  does  not  provide,  but  actually 
prevents,  by  forbidding  inquiry  into  the  question  of  paternity. 
These  are  the  true  preventives,  not  only  of  sexual  crimes,  but 
also  of  infanticide  and  of  many  suicides  and  homicides,  crimes 
which  in  general  arise  from  sexual  relationships;  and  these 
criminals  are  just  those  most  worthy  of  human  pity,  the  more 
so  as  the  guilty  are  most  often  those  who  are  otherwise  respect- 
able people. 

§  141.  Fraud 

Fraud  and  breach  of  trust  are  the  most  modern  crimes  and 
show  the  result  of  evolution  and  civilization  upon  crime,  —  a 
process  in  which  it  has  lost  all  the  cruelty  which  characterized  it 
in  primitive  ages,  substituting  greed  and  that  habit  of  lying 
which  unfortunately  threatens  to  become  general  among  us. 
Thus  if  we  pass  from  the  more  retired  valleys  into  the  small 
towns,  and  from  the  towns  to  the  great  cities,  we  shall  see,  as  we 
pass  from  small  to  great,  the  commercial  lie,  swindling  on  a 
small  scale,  take  on  larger  and  larger  proportions;  and  in  the 
highest  society,  under  the  form  of  financial  corporations,  we 
shall  see  the  true,  the  gigantic  system  of  swindling  flourishing 
permanently,  sheltered  behind  the  most  high-sounding  and 
honored,  if  not  the  most  honorable,  names.  It  is,  then,  natural 
that  the  common  swindler,  or  the  corrupt  politician,  should  not 
be  a  born  criminal,  but  a  criminaloid  possessing  all  the  qualities 
of  the  normal  man;  so  that  without  a  propitious  opportunity, 
such  an  opportunity,  we  may  even  say,  as  would  be  almost 
enough  to  corrupt  an  honest  man,  he  would  not  have  stumbled.* 

Now,  here  we  see  a  means  of  prevention  by  the  dissemination 
of  the  modern  economic  truth  that  a  bank  which  gives  itself  up 
merely  to  speculating  in  the  product  of  money  can  only  be  a 
1  Lombroso,  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II. 


262  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  141 

swindling  scheme,  since  money  cannot  of  its  own  power  mul- 
tiply itself.  Further,  we  must  demand,  in  every  case,  that  the 
directors  of  corporate  banks,  having  agricultural  or  industrial 
objects,  shall  offer  effective  guarantees  that  losses  will  be  made 
good,  even  when  a  disastrous  operation  has  been  sanctioned 
by  the  stockholders.  This  last  provision  is  the  more  necessary, 
since  stockholders  are  often  only  convenient  instruments  in  the 
hands  of  rogues,  and  are  made  their  involuntary  and  uncon- 
scious accomplices. 

The  bankers  and  jewelers  of  London  and  Paris  have  found 
an  ingenious  method  of  discovering  swindlers  who  approach 
them  under  the  disguise  of  men  of  high  station.  They  employ 
for  this  purpose  dogs  trained  to  recognize  the  odor  of  these 
pretended  rich  persons,  who  bathe  but  rarely.  They  make  use, 
also,  of  the  telephone,  of  instantaneous  photography,  and  of  the 
new  telephotography,  which  transmits  the  image  of  the  sus- 
pected client,  as  the  telephone  does  the  voice.  Hence  the  swind- 
ler is  in  danger  of  being  arrested  before  ever  leaving  the  place 
where  he  attempts  his  fraud. 

But  it  becomes  much  more  diflScult  to  prevent  swindling  when 
it  is  protected  by  political  or  governmental  power.  Swindling 
by  taking  advantage  of  political  office  seems  to  many  persons 
to-day  no  more  a  crime,  than  the  use  of  poison  did  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  when  not  only  the  Borgias,  but  also  the  Ten  in  Venice, 
made  use  of  it  as  a  common  political  weapon.  Now,  from 
assisting  a  newspaper  with  the  public  money  ("the  public's 
money  is  no  one's  money  ")  to  helping  a  friend,  and  then  finally 
one's  self,  is  but  a  short  step,  especially  for  those  who  seek  to 
supply  the  lack  of  genius  with  lack  of  honesty. 

But  here  the  institution  of  parliamentary  government  has 
its  effect,  especially  through  increasing  the  lack  of  responsibiUty. 
When  we  lived  under  a  despotic  government  the  royal  concu- 
bines pocketed  the  public  money.  To-day  it  is  the  deputies 
who  have  taken  their  places.  For  these,  considering  them- 
selves, like  the  kings,  inviolable,  and  being  even  more  irre- 
sponsible than  the  kings,  naturally  deny  themselves  nothing, 
unless  restrained  by  moral  sense.  Find  the  means  of  putting 
immense  treasures  into  the  hands  of  men  who  are  irresponsible 


§  141]  PREVENTION  OF  SEXUAL  CRIMES  263 

and  inviolable,  or  nearly  so,  and  then  try  to  tell  them  that  they 
must  not  touch  those  treasures!  To-day  the  evil  is  so  much 
the  greater,  as  the  deputies  and  senators  are  more  numerous, 
and  hence  more  dangerous,  than  kings.  It  is  easy  to  under- 
stand why  they  are  more  dangerous.  In  the  electoral  contest 
it  is  not  intellectual  qualities,  and  still  less  moral  qualities,  that 
decide  the  victory.  Far  from  it!  The  man  who  has  new  ideas 
simply  dashes  himseK  against  the  stone  wall  of  the  people's 
conservative  prejudices.  He,  who  with  a  free  conscience  points 
out  an  evil  and  proposes  the  remedy,  injures  the  interests  of 
some  powerful  voters.  The  respectable  man  who  does  not 
combat  abuses  openly  injures  no  one,  but  he  alsa  accomplishes 
nothing;  and  all  run  the  risk  of  being  submerged  by  the  medi- 
ocrity, which  satisJBes  the  world  with  an  insignificant  program, 
or  by  the  brazen  and  corrupt,  who  buy  the  needed  votes. 

It  is  necessary,  then,  to  restrict  the  number  of  these  repre- 
sentatives of  the  nation,  to  limit  their  power,  and  to  remove 
their  special  privileges.  In  ordinary  offenses  it  is  just  that  they 
should  be  held  to  a  greater  responsibihty  than  others,  as  in 
England,  where  merely  the  suspicion  of  adultery,  which  for 
most  persons  would  not  have  been  considered  a  crime,  was 
enough  to  cause  the  fall  of  Parnell. 

For  this  reason  the  largest  liberty  must  be  given  to  the  press. 
In  the  present  state  of  things  the  guilty  not  only  cannot  be  ac- 
cused, but,  if  they  are  accused,  find  a  new  resource  in  their 
own  crimes;  and  they  can,  at  the  expense  of  honest  men  and 
with  the  aid  of  the  law  itself,  indemnify  themselves  for  the 
efforts  which  honorable  men  make  to  expose  their  misdeeds. 

This  happened  in  France  when  B some  years  ago  got  a 

young  journalist  convicted  and  heavily  sentenced  for  reveal- 
ing only  a  small  part  of  the  truth  about  Panama. 

Here  is  the  place  to  say  that  in  such  cases  to  lay  bare  the 
sores  is  not,  as  some  weak  persons  believe,  to  increase  the  evil, 
but  on  the  contrary  to  begin  the  work  of  healing.  A  country 
which,  like  France,  seeks  to  cast  the  light  of  day  upon  the  foul 
places  in  order  to  purify  itself,  regains  its  rank  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  world  and  in  popular  opinion,  however  high  may  be 
the  station  of  the  guilty. 


264  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  141 

One  of  the  reforms  that  would  serve  best  to  check  political 
corruption  would  be  an  extensive  decentralization.  When  a 
government,  centralized  like  the  Italian  or  the  French,  has  the 
right  to  administer  enormous  sums  and  manage  affairs  involving 
billions,  as  in  many  of  our  public  works,  corruption  inevitably 
arises,  because  the  control  of  the  public  is  no  longer  actively 
or  directly  exercised,  and  a  wider  door  of  impunity  is  left  open. 
But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  pubhc  business  has  to  be  trans- 
acted in  broad  daylight,  under  the  eyes  of  all,  the  control  will 
be  more  eflScacious,  and  those  weak  persons  whom  money 
might  corrupt  will  find  in  the  publicity  of  their  acts  a  means 
of  resisting  evil.  Panama  scandals  occur  always  in  the  great 
central  administrations,  and  never,  or  in  much  smaller  pro- 
portions, in  municipal  administration. 

The  abuse  of  public  office  is  thus  a  crime  of  the  most  advanced 
civilization,  which  can  be  prevented  only  by  limiting  the  number 
and  power  of  the  deputies  and  senators,  who  are  the  natural 
protectors  of  corrupt  officials;  by  a  decentralization  which  will 
permit  a  more  active  surveillance  and  decrease  the  number 
of  monopolies;  but  especially  by  cutting  down  the  number  of 
officials.  Russia  and  Italy  are  really  governments  of  officials, 
who  absorb  and  stifle  everything  that  has  vital  force  in  the 
country,  and,  under  pretext  of  sustaining  life,  destroy  it.  Now 
it  is  possible,  in  the  courts,  for  example,  to  replace  the  collec- 
tive functionaries  by  a  single  judge,  and  thus  increase  the  sense 
of  responsibility  and  at  the  same  time  discover  cases  of  corrup- 
tion more  easily.  By  a  diminution  in  the  number  of  employees 
it  would  be  made  possible  to  choose  the  best  ones.  I  have  pro- 
posed, for  example,  to  choose  the  judges  in  the  first  place  by 
examinations;  then,  for  the  next  higher  grade,  by  the  number 
of  decisions  not  revoked  by  the  higher  courts;  and  finally,  for 
the  higher  judges,  by  the  number  of  cases  treated  by  direct 
citation  and  by  their  issue  on  appeal.  This  would  be  the  most 
exact  criterion,  and  at  the  same  time  a  great  encouragement  to 
well-doing. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   PREVENTION   OF   ALCOHOLISM^ 
§  142. 

TN  combating  alcoholism  we  should  be  inspired  by  the 
A  extraordinary  efforts  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  have  made. 
Their  temperance  societies  have  become  very  powerful,  and  by 
1867  already  included  3,000,000  members  and  published  three 
weekly  and  three  monthly  papers.  In  Glasgow  they  spent 
£2000  to  open  coffee  houses  in  districts  where  workmen  most 
frequented  the  whiskey-shops.  In  London  on  hohdays  they 
opened  tea-rooms  and  theaters  able  to  hold  more  than  4500 
persons.  At  the  Congress  in  Baltimore  in  1873  they  were 
represented  by  more  than  750,000  members;  and  in  five  years 
they  boasted  that  they  had  caused  the  closing  of  4000  distil- 
leries and  8000  liquor  saloons.  In  America  the  women  were 
powerful  allies  of  these  inexorable  enemies  of  alcoholism.  To 
save  their  brothers  and  husbands  they  forced  the  liquor 
dealers,  by  their  prayers  and  their  importunate  exhortations, 
to  close  their  shops.  Some  resisted  and  threatened  to  strike 
them,  or  turned  the  hose  on  them;  others  had  recourse  to  the 
courts,  or  set  bears  at  them.  But  they  were  protected  by  their 
own  weakness,  by  their  perseverance,  and  by  the  righteousness 
of  their  cause;  and  even  when  a  jury  found  them  guilty  the 
judge  was  not  willing  to  pronounce  sentence.  Put  to  flight  one 
day,  they  returned  to  the  attack  the  next,  so  that  many  had  to 
yield  to  their  indomitable  energy.  In  Germany  and  Switzerland 
there  arose  under  the  auspices  of  Forel  newspapers  and  libraries 

1  Wilh.  Bode,  "Die  HeUung  der  Trunksucht,"  Bremerhaven,  1890; 
G.  Bunge.  "Die  Alkoholfrage,"  Zurich,  1890;  A.  Forel,  "Die  Errichtung 
von  Trmker-Asylen  imd  ikrer  Einfiigung  in  die  Gesetzgebung,"  1890; 
Id.,  "Die  Reform  der  Gesellschaft  durch  die  vollige  Enthaltung  von 
alkoholischen  Getranken,"  1891;  Zerboglio,  "Soil'  Alcoolismo,"  1895; 
Korsakoff,  "Lois  et  Mesures  Prophylactiques,"  Turin,  1894;  Claude, 
"Rapport  au  S6nat  sur  la  Consommation  de  I'alcool  en  France,"  1897; 
Jacquet,  "L'Alcoolisme,"  1897;  Legrain,  "  D^g^nerescence  Sociale  et 
Alcoolisme,"  1877. 


266  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§  142 

whose  sole  aim  was  to  combat  the  abuse  of  alcohol.  Through 
the  combined  effect  of  such  efforts  great  changes  were  made  in 
institutions  in  this  regard.  In  1832  the  custom  was  com- 
menced of  giving  additional  pay  to  every  sailor  who  would 
give  up  his  ration  of  grog;  in  the  rations  of  the  land  troops 
spirits  were  suppressed  (the  sutlers  were  forbidden  to  sell 
them),  and  replaced  by  coffee  and  sugar,  a  measure  which  was 
later  adopted  by  the  great  industrial  companies. 

In  1845  the  State  of  New  York  declared  against  the  unre- 
stricted sale  of  Uquor;  Maine  followed  its  example;  but  never- 
theless the  sale  continued  in  secret.  Then  it  was  that  the 
famous  Maine  law  was  passed,  which  prohibited  expressly  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  spirituous  liquors,  except  for  medicinal 
purposes;  the  difficulty  of  transporting  such  liquors  became 
extreme;  it  was  forbidden  to  have  more  than  one  gallon  in  the 
house,  and  the  law  permitted  domiciliary  visits  for  the  purpose 
of  discovering  hidden  supplies.  This  law  was  adopted  in  some 
of  the  other  states,  but  was  largely  ineffective  because  of  the 
presence  of  foreigners  and  the  attitude  of  the  central  govern- 
ment. In  all  the  states  of  the  Union  (and  later  in  Switzerland 
and  Prussia)  laws  were  passed  which  prohibited  the  sale  of 
alcoholic  drinks  to  students,  minors,  insane  persons,  and  Indians. 
The  dealer  was  made  responsible  for  damage  and  injuries  caused 
by  drunkenness,  responsibility  for  which,  in  Illinois,  might  go 
as  high  as  $5000.  In  some  States  the  dealer  was  also  liable  for 
damage  to  the  drinker's  family,  caused  by  idleness  and  by 
diseases  due  to  drink. 

In  England  since  1856  the  sale  of  liquor  on  holidays  has 
been  prohibited.  Later  in  1864  and  1870  the  sale  was  restricted 
to  certain  hours.  A  fine  of  from  7  to  40  shillings,  or  a  day  in 
prison,  was  imposed  by  law  upon  every  one  found  publicly  in 
a  state  of  intoxication.  In  1871,  under  Gladstone  (who  suffered 
from  the  unpopularity  of  the  measure),  the  number  of  public 
houses  was  limited  as  follows: 

In  the  towns  In  the  country 

1  to  1500  inhabitants  1  to    900  inhabitants 

2  "  3000  "  2  "  1200 

3  "  4000  "  3  "  1800 


§  142]  THE  PREVENTION  OF  ALCOHOLISM  267 

Special  inspectors  are  appointed  to  control  the  illegal  sale  of 
liquor,  and  adulteration  is  punished  by  progressive  fines  and 
loss  of  license.  By  the  law  of  1873  it  was  ordered  that  no  new 
licenses  should  be  granted  as  long  as  existing  licenses  continued 
in  force,  and  out  of  the  money  received  from  licenses  certain 
sums  were  set  aside  to  buy  up  the  licenses  of  public  houses  that 
it  was  desirable  to  close.  To  these  things  must  be  added  the 
exhortations  of  preachers,  especially  those  of  Father  Mathew, 
who  in  1838-40  succeeded  by  his  eloquence  alone  in  diminish- 
ing the  consumption  of  alcohol  in  Ireland  by  half  and  cutting 
down  the  crimes  from  6400  to  4100.  Finally,  there  is  the 
tax  nipon  alcoholic  drinks.  In  the  United  States  this  tax  is 
very  high;  in  France  it  pays  the  state  more  than  500,000,000 
francs,  and  there  is  talk  of  increasing  it.  In  Belgium  it  brings 
in  more  than  13,000,000. 

According  to  the  penal  code  of  Holland,  passed  in  1881, 
drunkenness  upon  the  public  streets  is  punished  by  a  maximum 
fine  of  15  florins;  upon  a  second  offense  the  punishment  is  im- 
prisonment for  three  days,  and  upon  a  third  offense  within  a 
year  of  the  first  the  imprisonment  may  be  extended  to  two 
weeks.  In  succeeding  years  it  may  reach  three  weeks  or  more, 
and  if  the  offender  is  capable  of  working  he  may  be  sent  to  a 
public  workhouse  for  a  year  or  more.  The  retailer  who  fur- 
nishes drinks  to  a  child  below  16  years  of  age  is  punished  by 
imprisonment  for  not  more  than  three  weeks,  and  by  a  fine  of 
not  more  than  100  florins.  The  law  of  1881  forbids  the  sale  of 
alcohol  in  quantities  of  less  than  2  liters  without  the  authoriza- 
tion of  the  government  of  the  commune.  This  is  refused  when 
the  number  of  shops  reaches 

1  to  500  inhabitants  in  the  large  cities 

1  "  300  "  "  cities  of  from  20,000  to  50,000  population 

1  "  250  "  "  the  villages 

As  a  result  of  the  promulgation  of  this  law  the  number  of 
shops,  which  was  40,000  in  1881,  fell  to  25,000  by  1891.^ 

In  Switzerland  the  privilege  of  exporting  alcohol,  of  making 
it,  and  of  selling  it  wholesale,  belongs  to  the  government.  Two- 
thirds  of  the  quantity  consumed  must  be  imported;  of  the  re- 
1  Jacquet,  op.  cit. 


268  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  142 

maining  third,  half  is  manufactured  by  the  state,  which  has 
taken  over  the  larger  distilleries  for  this  purpose;  and  the  rest 
is  sold  by  the  200  small  distilleries.  The  price  of  sale  is  fixed 
by  the  Federal  Council.  Pure  alcohol  and  the  stronger  spirits 
are  subject  to  a  federal  tax  of  80  francs  to  the  metric  quintal, 
and  is  measured  by  special  federal  officers.  After  the  passage 
of  this  law  the  consumption  of  alcoholic  drinks  fell  20%.  The 
Canton  of  Saint-Gall,  by  a  law  promulgated  in  May,  1891, 
gave  the  public  authorities,  communal  or  municipal,  the  power 
of  assuming  the  guardianship  of  an  habitual  drinker,  at  the 
expense  either  of  the  patient  or  the  poor-fund. 

In  Sweden,  where  alcoholism  rages  to  the  extent  of  being  an 
endemic  disease,  the  taxes  on  the  distillation  of  brandy  were 
raised  in  1855-56-64,  successively  from  2  francs  to  the  hec- 
toliter to  27  and  32.  The  use  of  steam  in  the  distilleries  was 
forbidden,  the  production  limited  to  2610  liters  a  day,  and 
distillation  permitted  only  two  months  in  the  year  (later  seven 
months,  but  only  in  the  large  distilleries),  in  order  to  suppress 
the  small  ones,  recognized  as  most  harmful  to  the  people.  As 
a  consequence  the  production  of  alcohol  fell  two-thirds  in  ten 
years,  and  the  price  rose  from  .50  to  1.30  Kr.  a  liter.  In  Sweden 
a  corporation  collected  enough  money  to  buy  up  the  drink- 
shops  of  a  district,  and  allowed  the  retailers,  now  become  their 
employees,  to  make  a  profit  merely  upon  the  tea,  coffee,  and 
food  that  they  sold.  This  association  has  found  imitators  in 
147  Swedish  cities.  It  sold  only  pure  liquors,  and  refused  to  sell 
to  drunkards  or  minors.  Since  1813  there  has  existed,  more- 
over, a  law  which  fined  a  person  found  drunk  upon  the  streets 
three  dollars  for  the  first  offense,  twice  that  for  the  second  of- 
fense, and  for  the  third  and  fourth  took  away  his  right  of  vote 
and  representation.  At  the  fifth  offense  he  was  condemned  to 
prison  or  to  the  house  of  correction  at  hard  labor  for  six  months, 
and  upon  the  sixth  offense,  for  one  year.  Further  (at  least  in 
Norway),  the  sale  of  spirits  is  prohibited  upon  holidays  and 
the  day  before,  and  before  8  o'clock  in  the  morning.^ 

Which  of  all  these  remedies  has  given  the  best  result? 

Many  of  the  most  energetic  measures,  especially  the  repres- 
1  "Ann.  de  Stat.,"  1880. 


§  142]  THE  PREVENTION  OF  ALCOHOLISM  269 

sive  measures,  have  come  far  from  realizing  the  end  for  which 
they  were  designed,  except  in  Switzerland,  England,  and  Sweden. 
We  know  that  from  1851  to  1857  serious  crimes  decreased  40% 
in  Sweden,  and  lesser  crimes  30%,  and  that  this  diminution 
constantly  makes  itself  felt.  There  were  40,621  crimes  in  1865, 
and  only  25,277  in  I868.1  In  the  period  from  1830  to  1834,  with 
an  average  consumption  of  46  liters  of  brandy,  there  were  59 
murders  and  2281  thefts,  and  in  1875-78,  the  consumption  of 
brandy  having  fallen  to  11  liters,  the  number  of  murders  had 
fallen  to  18  and  that  of  thefts  to  1871  (Jaquet).  At  the  same 
time  the  average  stature  and  length  of  life  had  increased  (Baer) ; 
and  the  figure  for  suicides  of  alcoholics,  which  was  46  in  1861, 
had  fallen  to  11  by  1869.  The  number  of  drunkards  has  also 
decreased,  but  not  so  much  and  in  an  irregular  manner.  At 
Gothenburg,  for  example,  there  was : 

In  1851  1  drunkard  to  19  inhabitants 


1855  1 
1860  1 

1865  1 

1866  1 
1870  1 

1872  1 

1873  1 

1874  1 


9 
12 

22 
33 
38 
35 
31 
28 


It  is  nevertheless  true  that  when  my  colleague.  Dr.  Brusa, 
arrived  in  Gothenburg  on  a  holiday,  though  he  himself  could 
not  get  a  drop  of  wine,  he  met  a  number  of  persons  drunk  on 
the  streets.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  that  all  these 
Draconian  laws  have  not  prevented  alcoholism  from  increasing 
in  France  and  America.  It  has  even  been  affirmed  that  the 
Maine  law  is  rather  a  political  weapon  than  a  hygienic  measure; 
and  that  the  illicit  sale  of  alcoholic  drinks,  of  which  the  very 
legislators  who  prohibit  it  are  often  guilty,  furthers  alcoholism 
by  making  all  drinking  disreputable.  In  France,  the  tax  upon 
alcohol,  which  rose  from  37.40  francs  to  60  in  1855,  to  90  in  1860, 
and  to  150  in  1871,  now  actually  amounts  to  156.25  francs  to  the 
hectoliter  of  pure  alcohol.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  average 
per  capita  consumption  rose  from  11.45  liters  in  1850,  to  the 
enormous  amount  of  41.56  in  1892  (Claude).  The  same  thing 
1  Bertrand,  "  Essai  sur  1' Intemperance,"  1875. 


270  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  142 

in  effect  may  be  said  with  regard  to  England,  where,  notwith- 
standing the  exorbitant  tax  of  489.20  francs  to  the  hectoliter  of 
pure  alcohol,  the  consumption  in  the  United  Kingdom  between 
1860  and  1880  has  wavered  between  4.1  and  5.7  hters  per  capita, 
and  from  1880  to  1893,  with  some  slight  changes,  has  maintained 
the  figure  of  4.5  liters.  The  trifling  diminution  is  certainly  less 
to  be  attributed  to  the  tax  than  to  the  total  abstainers,  whose 
number  is  estimated  at  5,000,000. 

There  is  small  reason  for  astonishment  at  the  comparative 
inefficacy  of  these  fiscal  measures,  if  we  take  into  account  the 
fact  that  they  only  slightly  and  indirectly  affect  the  consimaer. 
This  may  easily  be  seen  by  following  Dupuy's  calculations: 

"Suppose  that  a  liter  of  alcohol  costs,  tax  and  all,  about  4 
francs.  We  know  that  from  a  liter  of  alcohol  it  is  possible  to 
make  two  and  a  haK  liters  of  brandy.  Now,  a  Hter  holds  30  to 
40  small  glasses  —  let  us  say  33  —  at  3  centiliters  to  a  glass. 
From  a  liter  of  alcohol  we  should  then  get  two  and  a  half  liters 
of  brandy,  or  82  small  glasses.  At  10  centimes  a  glass  the  re- 
tailer gets  8.20  francs.  This  is  4.20  francs  more  than  the  cost 
price.  The  margin  is  large,  and  leaves  ample  profit  for  retailer 
and  wholesaler  both"  (Claude). 

But  the  lack  of  success  is  due  especially  to  the  fact  that  no 
repressive  law  can  accomplish  its  purpose  when  it  runs  counter 
to  our  instincts.  Now  among  these  instincts  is  that  desire  for 
psychic  stimulation,  such  as  one  may  get  from  wine,  a  need 
which  increases  with  the  progress  of  civilization.  For  this 
reason  the  poor  miners  in  Scotland,  who  have  not  enough  money 
to  buy  whiskey,  have  recourse  to  laudanum;  and  the  poor  of 
London  allay  the  pangs  of  hunger  in  the  same  way.^  In  Ireland, 
when  the  preaching  of  Father  Mathew  had  turned  the  people 
away  from  alcoholic  drinks,  they  unexpectedly  became  addicted 
to  the  use  of  ether,'  of  which  the  good  pastor  had  never  thought. 

^  Colkins  calculates  that  in  1867  there  were  78,000  pounds  of  opium  used 
in  the  United  States  for  narcotic  purposes  ("Opium  and  Opium  Eaters, 
Philadelphia,  1871).  In  Kentucky  the  legislature  passed  a  law  by  which 
anyone  who,  through  the  use  of  opium,  arsenic,  or  other  drugs,  became 
incapable  of  controlling  himseK,  might  be  placed  in  care  of  a  guardian, 
or  shut  up  in  an  asylum  (Fazio,  "Dell'  Ubbriachezza,"  1875).  In  Lon- 
don 118,915  pounds  of  opium  were  imported  in  1857,  and  in  1862,  280,750; 
and  still  more  in  the  manufacturing  centers  of  Lancashire  (Fazio,  op.  cit.). 

'  They  used  a  mixture  of  ethyl-  and  methyl-ether. 


X 

§  142]  THE  PREVENTION  OF  ALCOHOLISM  271 

"This,"  said  they,  "is  not  wine,  it  is  not  gin,  which  Father 
Mathew  has  forbidden  us  to  use;  and  it  makes  us  merry  for  a 
few  pence,  so  we  drink  it."  They  made  use  of  it  even  to  the 
point  of  drunkenness,  frequently  taking  7  to  14  grams,  while 
inveterate  users  went  as  high  as  90  grams. 

The  true  ideip,l  of  a  wise  and  philanthropic  legislator,  in  the 
combat  with  alcoholism,  would  be  to  provide  the  people  with 
some  form  of  mental  stimulant  that  would  injure  neither  mind 
nor  body,  and  would  not  have  the  danger  of  alcohol.  Subsidies 
to  the  large  theaters  have  been  discussed  in  this  connection. 
Why  should  not  popular  theaters  and  shows  be  subsidized?  It 
would  be  quite  fair  to  refuse  to  subsidize  great  theaters,  since 
they  are  only  for  the  rich,  and  to  provide,  instead,  a  means  of 
mental  distraction  to  the  poor,  which  would  be  of  use  in  pre- 
venting alcoholism.  At  a  mass  meeting  in  Turin  in  the  interest 
of  temperance,  a  workman  asked  that  the  theaters  should  be 
kept  in  operation  all  day  on  Sunday  at  a  low  price,  so  that  the 
workmen  might  have  something  to  keep  them  out  of  the  wine- 
shops. This  was  the  only  rational  suggestion  made  at  the  meet- 
ing, and  it  was  indignantly  rejected.  Forni  tells  us  that  in  a 
small  district  in  the  south  of  Italy  the  wine-shop  keeper  had 
the  leader  of  a  troupe  of  comedians  thrashed,  because  since  he 
had  arrived  there  with  his  cheap  performances  (the  admission 
price  was  15  centimes)  the  retailer  had  sold  only  half  as  much 
wine  as  usual. ^  In  Italy,  as  we  shall  see  later,  the  clergy  alone 
have  organized  recreations  on  a  large  scale  for  the  feast-days, 
by  means  of  which  the  poor  can  agreeably  pass  their  time  be- 
tween one  prayer  and  the  next  without  resorting  to  the  wine- 
shop.   No  other  cla^s  has  done  as  much. 

It  is  necessary  also  to  extend  the  use  of  tea  and  coffee,  which 
stimulate  the  brain  without  paralyzing  the  inhibitory  faculties 
as  alcohol  does.  To  do  this  it  is  not  enough  to  increase  the  taxes 
upon  alcohol :  it  is  necessary  also,  as  Fioretti  and  Magnan  have 
suggested,  to  lower  the  taxes  upon  imports,  especially  upon  tea, 
coffee,  and  particularly  upon  sugar,  which,  since  it  serves  to 
make  other  drinks  agreeable,  prevents  the  need  of  alcoholic 
beverages.  Since  the  dark  and  unsanitary  dwellings,  hidden  in 
1  Lombroso,  "Incremento  al  Delitio,"  p.  81. 


272  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  143 

narrow  and  dirty  streets,  in  which  workmen  are  obliged  to  live, 
drive  them  irresistibly  to  the  wine-shop,  we  should  widen  the 
streets,  and  build  for  the  workingman  buildings  with  better 
air,  and  of  a  sort  to  make  the  domestic  hearth  an  agreeable  and 
respectable  resting-place,  to  be  preferred  to  the  wine-shop. 

After  these  measures  have  been  adopted  it  will  be  time  to 
come  down  upon  the  retailers  of  alcoholic  beverages,  by  restrict- 
ing the  hours  of  sale  at  night  and  on  holidays,  by  restricting 
the  licenses,  and  by  forcing  the  sale  of  food  and  coffee,  par- 
ticularly in  the  neighborhood  of  factories.  It  will  be  necessary 
to  be  even  more  strict  with  the  proprietors  of  factories  and 
mines,  when  they  themselves  sell  alcoholic  drinks,  for  by  their 
authority  they  help  corrupt  the  most  sober  workman.  Finally, 
spirituous  liquors  should  have  very  heavy  taxes  laid  upon  them, 
a  measure  much  more  moral  and  salutary  than  taxing  salt  and 
flour;  and  the  consumption  of  amyl-alcohol  should  be  prohibited, 
and  also  the  use  of  all  alcohols  not  rectified,  including  bitters, 
vermouth,  etc.,  since  these  are  the  most  harmful  to  health. 

It  has  also  been  proposed  to  forbid  the  sale  of  alcoholic  drinks 
on  credit,  and  to  declare  contracts  made  in  the  wine-cellars  not 
binding.  A  measure  that  seems  especially  practical  is  to  have 
the  workman's  wages  paid  to  his  family  in  the  morning  instead 
of  at  night,  and  never  on  a  hoUday  or  the  day  before.^  Let  no 
one  interpose  the  usual  protest  about  personal  liberty.  For 
when  we  see  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  most  democratic  people  in 
the  world,  carrying  their  restrictions  even  to  the  hours  when 
liquor  may  be  sold  and  the  amount  that  each  person  may  have 
in  his  house;  when  we  see  a  Gladstone  the  promoter  and  apostle 
of  similar  measures,  while  in  Italy  the  hours  of  sale  are  increased, 
and  no  one  raises  a  voice  for  the  substitution  of  taxes  on  the 
wine-shops  for  the  baneful  taxes  upon  salt  and  flour,  —  one  is 
driven  to  ask  himself  whether  this  pretended  devotion  to  liberty 
is  not  simply  the  result  of  the  avarice  of  trade. 

§  143.  Cure 

With  regard  to  direct  cure,  use  has  been  made  of  strychnine* 
bromides,  tincture  of  nux  vomica,  cold  baths  (Kowalewsky)> 

1  See  "Archivio  di  Peichiatria  e  Scienze  Penali,"  I  and  II,  1880;  Ferri, 
"Sostitutivi  Penali." 


§143]  THE  PREVENTION  OF  ALCOHOLISM  273 

baths  of  hot  air  impregnated  with  vapor  of  turpentine,  and 
sulphur  baths,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  case  and  its  com- 
phcations.  Massage  and  gymnastics  have  also  been  made  use 
of;  and  Forel,  Ladame,  and  Bucknill  have  obtained  good  results 
with  hypnotism  where  the  patient  was  susceptible  to  it.  Forel, 
Kowalewsky,  Ladame,  Legrain,  and  Magnan  have  introduced 
the  rational  cure  of  drunkenness  by  isolation  and  absolute  depri- 
vation of  all  alcoholic  drinks  for  a  period  which  Masson,  Crother, 
and  Hirsch  think  should  be  a  year,  Drysdale  and  Kraepelin 
nine  months,  and  Forel  from  four  months  to  a  year.  Magnan 
advises,  further,  a  light,  strengthening  diet;  meat,  vegetables, 
fruits,  and  sweet  foods,  and  for  drinks,  bitter  infusions  (hops, 
quassia),  bouillon,  tea,  and  coffee.^  To  this  we  may  add  mus- 
cular labor,  especially  agricultural,  even  for  those  who  are  not 
accustomed  to  it.  But,  as  Magnan  says,^  what  is  especially 
necessary  is  a  moral  reeducation,  by  means  of  discussions  and 
lectures,  which  shall  show  to  these  patients  the  danger  and  harm 
of  alcohol,  and  awaken  their  affections  and  moral  sense.  For 
this  purpose  Forel  has  established  in  the  country  the  asylum  of 
EUetton,  a  kind  of  farm-colony,  under  the  paternal  rule  of  a 
superintendent  who  is  at  once  administrator  and  the  educator 
of  his  charges.  These  form  one  family,  living  in  common  a 
simple  and  healthful  life,  encouraging  one  another,  busy  with 
regular  work,  and  all  subjected  to  total  abstinence.  This  ex- 
periment is  a  success  in  65%  of  the  cases.  Similar  methods  in 
the  United  States,  from  the  statistics  of  3000  cases,  show  about 
the  same  percentage  of  success. 

Magnan  proposes  the  committal  to  special  asylums  of  habitual 
drunkards  and  of  all  who  have  alcoholic  delirium,  even  after 
the  dehrium  has  ceased,  for  17  or  18  months  —  or  in  the  case 
of  incurables,  for  an  indeterminate  period,  as  is  already  prescribed 

1  In  the  "Revue  d 'Hygiene,"  1895,  Ludwig  proposes  an  agreeable 
drink,  the  color  and  taste  of  which  recalls  sparkling  white  wine.  It  is 
made  as  follows:  White  sugar  1  kilogram,  red  sugar  1  kilogr.,  ground 
barley  500  gr.,  hops  30  gr.,  coriander  30  gr.,  elderberries  25  gr.,  \nolets 
25  gr.,  vinegar  1  liter,  water  50  liters.  Take  a  perfectly  clean  cask,  cut 
out  a  hole  4  or  5  inches  square  in  place  of  the  bunghole,  and  put  m  first 
the  sugar  and  then  the  other  ingredients;  mix  all  carefully,  and  leave 
to  steep  for  eight  days;  draw  off,  filter,  and  bottle,  corking  carefuUy. 
This  costs  about  7  centimes  a  liter,  and  resembles  wine  very  closely. 

2  "La  M^decine  Moderne,"  Nov.,  1893. 


274  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  143 

in  the  canton  of  Saint  Gall,  ia  Switzerland.  Hospitals  for  al- 
coholics have  a  double  object:  first,  that  of  protecting  society 
by  withdrawing  drunkards  from  it;  and  second,  that  of  put- 
ting the  drunkards  in  the  best  condition  for  cure  and  correction. 
Such  hospitals  should  receive:  first,  the  person  who  has  com- 
mitted an  ofiFense  in  a  drunken  fit;  secondly,  anyone  who  has 
dissipated  his  own  property  and  that  of  his  family  by  his  in- 
temperance; and  thirdly,  any  person  found  drunk  on  the 
street  a  number  of  times,  etc.  In  the  first  class  of  cases  the 
hospital  is  a  substitute  for  the  prison  or  insane  asylum.  In 
the  others  it  is  a  temporary  refuge.  Anyone  who  has  committed 
a  crime  in  a  state  of  intoxication,  if  after  an  investigation  by 
experts  he  is  proved  to  be  dangerous,  should  be  shut  up  in  an 
inebriate  hospital  for  an  indeterminate  period.  In  the  case 
where  a  crime  has  been  committed  by  an  intoxicated  person 
who  is  not  an  habitual  drunkard,  and  he  is  found  to  be  per- 
fectly sound,  he  should  be  examined  for  anthropological  and 
psychical  marks  of  degeneracy  as  signs  of  a  criminal  tendency. 
If  these  are  found  he  should  not  be  released  until  a  cure  is  as- 
sured, which  means,  in  most  cases,  his  permanent  detention. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PREVENTIVE    MEASURES    AGAINST    THE    INFLUENCE   OF    POVERTY 

AND   WEALTH 

§  144- 

IF,  as  we  have  seen,  wealth  that  is  excessive  or  too  rapidly 
acquired  has  almost  as  fatal  an  influence  as  poverty,  it 
follows  that  preventive  measures  will  be  efficacious  only  when 
they  combat  the  excess  of  the  one  as  well  as  of  the  other. 

The  first  thing  of  importance  here  is  to  secure  reforms  that 
shall  assure  greater  equality  in  the  distribution  of  the  returns 
of  labor  and  make  work  accessible  for  every  able-bodied  person; 
for  example,  the  limitation  of  the  hours  of  labor  according  to 
the  age  of  the  worker  and  the  nature  of  the  work,  especially  in 
mines  and  in  unhealthful  trades,  and  the  exclusion  of  women,' 
also,  from  work  at  night,  thus  protecting  their  virtue  and  health, 
and  at  the  same  time  bringing  larger  returns  to  a  greater  number 
of  workers.  For  the  attainment  of  this  object  it  is  not  enough 
to  authorize  strikes  theoretically.  It  is  also  necessary  to  per- 
mit their  organization  practically  and  not  to  suppress  trades 
unions  and  boycotts,  without  which  the  liberty  of  striking  is 
no  more  than  a  legal  hypocrisy.  On  the  other  hand,  the  aboli- 
tion of  lotteries  and  of  many  holidays,  the  facilitation  of  civil 
actions,  the  turning  over  to  the  communes  of  lighting,  road- 
making,  schools,  and  water-supply,  would  prevent  much 
corruption  and  extend  to  a  greater  number  of  laborers  the 
advantages  of  hygiene  and  the  cheapest  market  in  things  most 
necessary  to  life.  This  would  make  it  possible  to  mitigate  the 
distress  of  the  poor,  without  producing  any  disorder  or  injuring 
the  rich. 

The  excess  of  wealth,  on  the  other  hand,  may  be  counteracted 
by  making  the  rich  share  their  profits  with  the  laborers,  and  by 
establishing  progressive  taxes,  especially  upon  legacies,  taxes 


276  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  144 

which  shall  weigh  heavily  upon  or  even  annul  legacies  received 
from  distant  relatives,  and  turn  these,  as  well  as  the  gains  of 
speculation  and  gambling,  to  the  profit  of  the  state  and  the 
helpless.  We  have  already  made  a  great  step  toward  the 
expropriation  and  subdivision  of  property  by  abolishing  eccle- 
siastical benefices  and  entailed  estates,  and  by  means  of  these 
taxes  we  could,  without  too  much  disturbance,  bring  about  a 
still  greater  subdivision.  Why  do  we  allow  a  peasant  in  upper 
Italy  to  eat  poisoned  bread,  which  gives  him  pellagra,  when  we 
could  prevent  it  with  the  law  which  we  apply  effectively  in  the 
cities?  Why  do  we  allow  the  dwellers  in  the  malaria  districts 
to  die,  when  the  sale  of  quinine  at  a  low  price  would  save  them? 
Finally,  if  the  want  of  coal  prevents  the  expansion  of  certain 
industries,  the  government  could  extend  the  use  of  the  water 
power  at  our  disposal,  at  the  expense  of  a  small  part  of  the 
enormous  sums  which  it  wastes  without  thought  upon  military 
and  official  pomp. 

On  the  other  hand,  since  the  great  country  estates,  by  per- 
petuating the  wealth  of  the  few,  perpetuate  also  the  illness  and 
poverty  of  the  many,  why  should  they  not  be  expropriated  to 
the  state?  and  why  should  not  more  prejudicial  agrarian  con- 
tracts be  modified,  and  the  peasants  receive  a  larger  share  in 
the  profits?  Henry  George  shows  that  if  the  state  confiscated 
the  land  and  let  it  directly  to  capable  laborers,  it  would  not 
only  bring  about  a  higher  productivity,  but  also  fix  a  minimum 
wage,  higher  than  present  wages,  and  thus  encourage  workmen 
insufficiently  paid  to  devote  themselves  by  preference  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  poverty  of  the  workmen,  due  in  great 
part  to  the  excess  of  production  over  consumption,  inevitably 
draws  after  it  a  lowering  of  wages,  a  phenomenon  which  can 
only  be  aggravated  by  the  competition  of  the  markets  of  Japan, 
China,  and  America.  We  ought  then  to  help  relieve  the  market 
by  encouraging  consumption  on  the  part  of  a  greater  number  of 
indi\aduals,  by  lightening  imposts,  duties,  and  especially  indi- 
rect taxes  that  can  be  replaced  by  others  not  detrimental  to 
health  and  morals,  such  as  taxes  on  alcohol  and  tobacco, 
»  "Progress  and  Poverty,"  1892. 


§  144]  MEASURES  AGAINST  POVERTY  AND  WEALTH    277 

which  would  affect  only  the  rich  and  the  vicious.  England  had 
no  need  of  a  socialistic  creed  in  order  to  realize  these  reforms. 
This  government,  the  only  sensible  one  that  Europe  has,  knew 
how  to  prevent  the  excesses  of  the  lower  classes,  first  in  regard 
to  the  Irish  question  and  then  in  the  labor  question  (as  in  the 
case  of  the  miners  and  dock-laborers),  by  conceding  complete 
liberty  of  striking,  by  granting  of  its  own  accord  the  eight- 
hour  day  in  all  government  shops,  and  by  giving  an  equal 
voice  to  employers  and  to  workmen  in  the  arbitration  of  labor 
difficulties. 

The  excess  of  population  being  in  its  turn  a  grave  cause  of 
poverty  and  crime,  we  must  direct  emigration  from  the  over- 
populated  countries  toward  those  which  are  less  thickly  settled. 
Lord  Derby  has  said:  "I  have  always  been  persuaded  that  if 
our  country  has  escaped  the  greatest  evils  that  afflict  society, 
it  is  because  we  have  always  had,  beyond  the  sea,  outlets  for 
our  population  and  our  manufactures,"  England,  in  fact, 
having  the  ocean  and  the  means  of  utilizing  it,  has  the  whole 
world  for  safety-valve. 

The  state  ought  also  to  establish  working  colonies  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  great  centers,  especially  in  the  heart  of  the  less 
advanced  districts  where  the  need  of  clearing  and  cultivation 
is  most  felt.  To  these  colonies  persons  found  guilty  of  laziness 
and  vagrancy  should  be  sent  for  a  definite  time,  and  the  cost 
of  their  lodging,  food,  and  transportation  should  be  set  aside 
out  of  their  earnings.^  Laziness  can  be  overcome  only  by 
obligatory  work,  just  as  the  muscular  inertia  of  a  limb  that  has 
remained  for  a  long  time  in  enforced  idleness  can  be  corrected 
only  by  continued  movement,  violent  and  often  even  painful. 
After  the  pastor  of  Badelschwing,  as  a  measure  to  prevent  beg- 
ging and  vagrancy,  had  introduced  in  Westphalia  a  colony  of 
free  workers,  who  cultivated  barren  strips  of  territory,  12  other 
provinces  followed  this  example,  and  by  this  measure  there  were 
15,000  more  laborers  at  work  in  the  country.  Since  then  the 
number  of  convictions  for  vagrancy  and  begging  has  diminished 
a  third.  An  institution  of  this  kind  brought  down  the  convic- 
tions for  vagrancy  in  the  canton  of  Vaud  by  a  half.  In  Holland 
1  Hello,  "Des  Colonies  Agricole  P^nitentiares,"  1865. 


278  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  146 

1800  persons  with  their  families  cultivating  the  frontiers  of 
Drenta  cost  24  francs  per  annum  for  each  person,  while  eliminat- 
ing mendicancy  at  the  same  time.  The  great  distress  in  Baden 
in  1850,  after  the  failure  of  the  great  building  contractors,  was 
relieved  from  1851  to  1858  by  the  emigration  of  more  than 
12,000  artisans.! 

§  145.   Cooperation 

In  Italy  and  in  France  the  first  help  must  always  be  furnished 
by  the  government  and  the  ruling  classes,  because  our  people 
are  not  used  to  getting  themselves  out  of  diflSculties  by  their 
own  eflForts  alone.  We  must  however  attempt  to  bring  it 
about  that  the  more  needy  classes  shall  aid  one  another  by 
cooperation  and  mutual  assistance.  The  immense  benefit 
which  the  financial  contributions  of  these  classes  bring  to  the 
state  should  be  turned  to  their  profit  by  the  substitution  of 
collective  for  private  capital. 

§  146.   Charity.    Benevolence 

There  is  to-day,  however,  a  degree  of  distress  which  cannot 
be  relieved  by  the  slow  methods  of  cooperation,  collectivism, 
and  the  insufficient  and  tardy  measures  of  the  state.  An  investi- 
gation carried  on  by  my  daughter  Gina  ^  upon  the  spot  proved 
that  of  a  hundred  families  of  workmen  in  Turin,  all  of  whom 
were  employed,  50%  were  always  in  debt  and  25%  were  bene- 
ficiaries of  parochial  charity,  without  which  they  would  have 
been  in  danger  of  dying  of  hunger.  These  works  of  charity, 
once  the  sole  help  in  time  of  distress,  although  insufficient,  are 
still  a  necessary  auxiliary,  and  will  be  so  until  advancing  civ- 
ilization replaces  them  with  preventive  measures. 

We  must  endeavor,  then,  to  have  philanthropy  cast  off  the 
old  monkish  habit  and,  inspired  by  the  new  spirit,  march  along 
the  road  of  popular  economic  reform.  In  modernizing  philan- 
thropic methods  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Germanic  nations  excel, 
among  whom  the  Protestant  religions  have  popularized  charity 

1  Carpi,  "Delle  Colonie." 

*  "Inchiesta  di  Gina  Lombroso  su  100  Famiglie  Operaie,"  Turin,  1897. 


§  146]   MEASURES  AGAINST  POVERTY  AND  WEALTH    279 

by  freeing  it  from  ecclesiastical  bonds  and  putting  it  directly 
in  touch  with  the  heart  of  the  people  —  the  best  method  of 
discovering  and  reheving  secret  distress.  In  England  and 
Switzerland  charity  ingeniously  makes  use  of  the  aid  of  the 
poor  in  helping  the  poor.  Unemployed  mothers,  for  example, 
are  set  to  care  for  the  children  of  those  that  are  at  work.  Lodg- 
ing houses  are  established  as  temporary  homes  for  domestic 
servants  and  employment  bureaus  are  set  up  for  those  who 
need  work.  The  whole  machinery  works  so  perfectly  that 
only  small  charitable  contributions  are  necessary  to  maintain 
the  institutions,  while  at  the  same  time  the  self-respect  of  the 
beneficiary  is  maintained. 

Geneva,^  for  example,  which  is  one  of  the  few  cities  of  Europe 
where  crime  is  decreasing,  has  400  philanthropic  institutions, 
including  the  following:  35  for  children,  of  which  7  are  for 
taking  them  to  the  baths,  5  for  protection  at  home,  1  recrea- 
tional, 2  schools  of  apprenticeship,  1  industrial,  and  1  musical; 
16  for  old  people,  of  which  5  are  asylums,  1  for  pensions  at 
home,  10  for  insurance;  48  for  women,  of  which  4  are  asylums 
for  young  girls,  1  for  fallen  women,  4  for  unemployed  domes- 
tics, 8  hospitals  (5  for  domestics  and  3  for  young  girls),  1  rec- 
reational, 1  against  prostitution,  1  protective,  4  employment 
agencies,  7  for  procuring  work  at  home,  8  for  the  protection  of 
teachers,  children,  etc.;  46  for  men,  of  which  11  are  for  indus- 
trial accidents,  8  of  various  nationalities  to  facilitate  the  em- 
ployment of  emigrants,  3  for  the  unemployed,  4  for  recreation 
and  lecture  halls,  4  for  lectures,  1  against  gambling,  1  to  buy 
tools,  1  for  placing  apprentices,  9  temperance,  9  people's  kitch- 
ens, etc.,  etc.  The  more  special  institutions  are:  societies  for 
the  improvement  of  lodgings,  and  for  sanitary  lodgings  at  a 
cheap  price;  special  savings  banks  which  receive  money  in 
small  sums  and  repay  it  in  merchandise  bought  at  wholesale; 
family  hotels  for  poor  foreigners,  workmen  in  search  of  employ- 
ment, etc.  One  of  the  most  characteristic  of  their  institutions 
is  the  Old  Paper  Society.  This  society  distributes  sacks  to  a 
great  many  families,  who  return  them  at  a  certain  time  filled 
with  old  papers.     With  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  these  the 

1  Lombard,  "Annuaire  Philanthropique  Genevois,"  Geneva,  1893. 


280  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  148 

society  maintains  an  office  and  an  agency  which  receives  old 
clothes  and  other  articles  from  the  rich,  has  them  cleaned  and 
repaired  by  the  destitute,  and  then  sells  them  at  a  moderate 
price,  or  gives  them  away  to  the  needy.  Other  agencies  pro- 
cure work  for  poor  women  and  take  charge  of  the  business  of 
selling  the  proceeds  of  their  labor. 

It  is  a  characteristic  mark  that  these  societies  conduct  them- 
selves without  need  of  patrons.  The  asylums,  lodgings,  etc., 
are  never  gratuitous.  Those  who  take  advantage  of  them  pay 
a  Httle  —  as  little  as  possible  and  at  intervals  —  but  on  the 
whole  societies  and  asylums  alike  are  maintained  by  those  who 
enjoy  the  benefits  of  them.  It  is  a  sort  of  evolution  of  charity 
that  takes  away  everything  humiliating  about  it,  and  makes 
it  a  strong  and  efficacious  assistant. 

§  147.  London  —  Asylums,  Refuges,  Helps  for  the  Poor 

Similar  institutions,  or  even  better  ones,  exist  in  London,  the 
only  capital  in  the  world  where  crime  is  decreasing.  London 
has  about  120  institutions,  which  in  1894  assisted  more  than 
18,000  individuals,  at  an  expense  of  £173,000.  The  aged 
have  naturally  the  greatest  number  of  retreats  (20),  and  after 
them  the  widows.  There  are  establishments  of  all  sorts,  for 
those  belonging  to  different  trades,  nationalities,  and  religions, 
for  old  married  couples,  for  the  support  of  the  poor  in  their  own 
homes,  night-refuges,  employment  agencies  for  sailors;  there  are 
societies  for  the  care  of  alcoholics,  for  the  care  of  the  children 
of  prisoners,  and  for  poor  prisoners  themselves.  All  these 
institutions  are  connected  with  one  another  and  directed  by 
central  committees.^ 

§  148.    (i)  Emigration  Societies 

Several  societies  make  it  their  business  to  put  a  check  to 
the  increase  of  crime  by  encouraging  emigration,  particularly 
to  Canada.  They  furnish  information  and  aid,  and  organize 
expeditions  of  adults  or  of  infants.  In  1894  they  directed  the 
emigration  of  7565  persons. 

1  Low,  "Handbook  to  the  Charity  of  London,"  1895-96. 


§  153]  MEASURES  AGAINST  POVERTY  AND  WEALTH    281 

§  149'    (2)  Employment  Societies 

There  are  21  societies  whose  sole  object  is  the  procuring  of 
employment,  while  others  find  places  for  boys  as  bootblacks 
and  cabin-boys. 

§  ISO'    (3)  Orphanages 

The  concern  felt  for  children  is  shown  especially  by  the  60 
asylums,  which  cared  for  20,199  orphans,  at  an  expense  of 
172,340  francs;  homes  are  found  for  others  with  respectable 
parents,  who  are  recompensed  in  this  way  for  their  sobriety; 
and,  finally,  children  with  sick  fathers  and  mothers  are  con- 
sidered, with  a  breadth  of  view  quite  exceptional,  as  being 
orphans  and  are  treated  as  such. 


§  151.    (4)  Institutions  for  Neglected  Children 

Institutions  more  directly  prophylactic  are  unquestionably 
those  which  have  for  their  object  the  care,  protection,  and 
instruction  of  deserted  children,  as  well  as  for  giving  temporary 
care  to  children  whose  parents  while  at  work  would  otherwise 
have  to  leave  them  uncared  for.  There  are  about  sixty  such 
societies,  which  in  1894  saved  32,300  children  from  the  dangers 
of  the  street,  at  an  expense  of  119,246  francs. 

§  152.    (5)  Schools 

These  institutions  are  subdivided  into  free  schools,  night 
schools,  and  vacation  schools.  Certain  of  them  furnish  food 
and  clothing,  and  they  are  often  designed  for  different  classes 
of  the  population.  There  are  about  40  of  them,  and  in  1894 
they  gave  instruction  to  more  than  16,000  children. 

§  153'    (6)  Care  for  Prisoners,  Convicts,  etc. 

The  institutions  directly  applied  to  the  diminution  of  crim- 
inality (societies  to  aid  released  prisoners,  for  protecting  women 
in  peril,  temperance  societies,  refuges  for  alcoholics,  societies  for 


282 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REJMEDIES 


[§154 


moral  propaganda,  etc.),  numbered  84  in  1894,  and  assisted 
more  than  67,000  individuals.  Among  these  36  are  designed 
especially  for  women  released  from  prison,  whether  fallen  or 
criminal,  or  simply  in  danger  of  becoming  so.  Such  are  those 
societies  whose  object  is  to  protect  domestic  servants  against 
the  perils  of  their  position. 


§  154.    (7)  Mutual  Aid  Societies 

Finally,  the  mutual  aid  societies  also  specialize  as  to  trades* 
nationalities,  religions,  etc.  There  are  68,  which  in  1894  aided 
33,340  individuals  with  a  total  of  218,796  francs. 

The  following  is  a  resume  for  the  year  1894  of  those  chari- 
table institutions  of  London  which  may  have  some  effect  upon 
criminality : 


Societies  for  the  care  and  assistance  of  prisoners 

Emigration  societies 

Employment  agencies 

Orphan  asylums      

Institutions  for  poor  and  neglected  children      .    . 

Educational  institutions 

Asylums,  refuges,  etc 

Mutual  aid  societies 

Total 


Amoimt 

Number  of 

expended 

Beneficiaries 

Francs 

67,577 

176,030 

7,565 

30,627 

4,840 

26,290 

20,199 

172,341 

32,354 

119,246 

16,019 

108,261 

18,057 

172.999 

33,340 

218,796 

1.024,590 


But  the  societies  which  deserve  the  greatest  consideration 
are  those  which  have  for  their  object  the  protection  of  children. 
The  English  National  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
Children  (imitated  upon  an  even  larger  scale  in  New  York), 
did  not  limit  itself,  as  would  have  been  the  case  in  France  or 
Italy,  to  securing  the  passage  of  a  law.  It  wanted  to  introduce 
the  idea  and  practice  of  justice  toward  children  in  all  ranks  of 
society,  and  its  efforts  have  been  crowned  with  success;  25,437 


§  154]  MEASURES  AGAINST  POVERTY  AND  WEALTH    283 

children,  abused  in  every  sort  of  way,  have  been  rescued  from 
those  who  were  torturing  them;  62,887  victims  of  negligence, 
suflPering  from  hunger  and  cold,  have  received  the  necessities 
of  life;  while  at  least  603  children  have  been  kept  from  mendi- 
cancy. This  society,  in  10  years,  has  been  able  to  rescue  from 
vice,  hunger,  and  crime  109,304  children.  While  protecting 
these  children  it  received  more  than  47,220  complaints  against 
those  who  were  maltreating  them.  Of  these,  5313  remained 
unknown;  in  the  case  of  38,895  the  society  limited  itself  to  a 
reprimand;  5792  it  prosecuted,  always  with  increasing  success, 
for  from  the  first  to  the  second  period  of  its  existence  the  per- 
centage of  acquittals  fell  from  10.2%  to  5.5%.  According  to 
the  investigations  of  the  society,  the  parents  most  cruel  to  their 
children  are  always  those  with  some  means.  This  is  to  be 
explained  by  the  effect  of  the  abuse  of  alcohol,  and  by  a  new 
form  of  criminality,  for  the  practice  of  which  the  parents  must 
have  money  on  hand.  This  criminal  device  is  the  insuring  of 
the  life  of  the  child  whose  death  is  awaited,  hoped  for,  and 
even  hastened  by  the  beneficiaries.  According  to  the  horrible 
confession  of  one  of  the  persons  accused,  certain  children  are 
worth  more  dead  than  alive.  In  five  years  the  society  has 
taken  up  the  cases  af  about  19,000  maltreated  children,  repre- 
senting for  their  parents  a  value  of  £95,000. 

But,  in  order  to  reach  such  a  result,  and  to  penetrate  so  deeply 
into  the  most  secret  recesses  of  the  criminal  world,  recesses 
almost  always  hidden  even  from  the  eye  of  the  regular  police, 
it  was  necessary  for  the  society  to  avail  itself  of  every  assistance, 
even  that  of  the  administrators  of  the  poor  funds  and  Parliament 
itself.  The  society  obtained  the  aid  of  the  magistrates  and 
judges,  who,  after  having  seen  its  work,  recognized  its  compe- 
tence, and  have  ended  by  giving  its  inspectors  an  almost  official 
dignity.  Better  even  than  this,  the  society  has  obtained  the 
cooperation  of  the  masses.  In  the  10  years  of  its  existence  it 
has  received  proof  of  the  sympathy  and  approval  of  100,000 
citizens  who  have  facilitated  the  work  of  justice  by  bearing 
testimony.  All  these  efforts  together  have  brought  about  singu- 
larly happy  results,  and  rarely  has  a  second  trial  been  neces- 
sary.   Of  7398  persons  against  whom  sentence  was  given,  6700 


284  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  155 

are  living  to-day  with  their  children,  and  only  100  have  had  to 
appear  in  court  a  second  time. 

To  what  is  one  to  attribute  so  marvelous  a  change  in  the  par- 
ent? In  great  part  to  the  punishment,  the  efficacy  being  in 
proportion  to  its  duration;  for  the  degree  of  improvement  in  the 
conduct  of  the  parents  toward  their  children  corresponds  in 
general  with  the  number  of  months  that  they  have  had  to  spend 
in  prison.  We  may  add  that  during  the  imprisonment  of  the 
parent  the  society  does  not  abandon  the  children,  but,  instead 
of  the  pale,  miserable  creatures  that  they  were,  has  them  flour- 
ishing and  robust  to  turn  over  to  their  parents.  When  these 
see  their  children  looking  so  well  they  are  proud  of  them,  and 
a  certain  natural  parental  love  is  awakened,  which  helps  in  the 
process  of  reformation.  Strange  contradiction  of  human  ego- 
ism! The  father  formerly  held  his  victim  responsible  for  dis- 
eases of  which  he  himself  was  the  cause,  and  now  takes  pride  in 
a  show  of  health  to  which  he  himself  has  contributed  nothing. 

§  155.   Charity  in  Latin  Countries 

In  comparison  with  what  is  done  in  the  places  just  described, 
how  limited  appears  the  charity  of  Latin  countries!  Turin,  a 
city  three  times  the  size  of  Geneva,  has  but  159  workingmen's 
societies,  for  mutual  aid,  etc.,  and  147  charitable  institutions, 
of  which  21  are  hospitals;  43  institutions  are  designed  for  chil- 
dren, of  which  two  are  for  delinquents,  23  are  asylums  for  in- 
fants, 6  orphanages,  3  recreational,  and  6  industrial  schools. 
There  are  also  22  institutions  for  women,  of  which  11  are  for 
those  in  danger,  2  are  hospitals,  and  9  professional  schools. 
Among  the  most  modern  of  the  institutions  are:  a  society  for 
workmen  meeting  with  misfortune  while  at  work,  a  people's 
bureau,  pensions  for  men  without  families  (in  return  for  pay- 
ment), and  a  mountain  and  a  seaside  resort  maintained  for 
outings  for  poor  children.  Finally,  there  is  the  Cottolengo  Insti- 
tute, which  receives  all  the  sick,  weak,  and  infirm  who  present 
themselves,  up  to  2000  or  3000.  In  southern  Italy,  Bartolo 
Longa,  for  the  honor  of  the  Virgin  and  the  sanctuary  at  Pompeii, 
took  136  orphans,  and  70  children  of  convicts,  whom  he  in- 
structed in  agriculture  and  in  various  trades.    Here  the  cult  of 


§  156]   MEASURES  AGAINST  POVERTY  AND  WEALTH    285 

the  Virgin  came  into  partnership  with  modern  journalism,^  by 
means  of  which  the  philanthropist  succeeded  in  placing  the 
orphans  in  benevolent  and  respectable  families. 

What  is  lacking  here  is:  institutions  to  receive  small  savings; 
societies  to  improve  the  lodgings  of  the  poor;  employment 
bureaus  and  servants'  lodging-houses,  which  need  cost  the 
philanthropist  nothing,  as  they  are  self-supporting;  and  insti- 
tutions preventive  of  theft.  Aside  from  the  orphan  asylums, 
none  of  the  institutions  receive  children  below  10  or  12  years, 
and  we  have,  moreover,  neither  boarding  schools  nor  "ragged 
schools."  Furthermore,  these  institutions  show  such  excessive 
modesty,  such  a  shrinking  from  all  publicity,  that  I  have  gath- 
ered the  data  with  great  difficulty,  and  of  a  great  many  of  them 
it  is  impossible  to  know  anything. 


§  156.  Don  Bosco 

Among  the  charitable  institutions  of  Turin,  that  of  Don 
Bosco  holds  the  first  place;  for,  with  us  charity  is  only  truly 
marvelous  when  it  appears  in  the  person  of  some  saint,  great 
both  in  heart  and  intelligence,  like  the  very  justly  celebrated 
Don  B0SC0.2 

Don  Bosco  was  26  years  old  In  1841,  when,  while  visiting  the 
prisons  of  Turin,  he  became  interested  in  the  lot  of  the  young 
delinquents,  thinking  that  if  care  had  been  taken  of  them  in 
time  many  of  them  might  have  been  saved.  From  then  on  he 
received  into  his  community  the  young  workmen  who  were 
most  exposed  to  temptation,  getting  work  for  them  when  they 
did  not  have  it  and  visiting  them  at  their  labors.  In  1850  he 
founded  the  Mutual  Aid  Society,  the  object  of  which  was  to 
furnish  aid  to  the  members  who  fell  sick,  or  were  destitute  be- 
cause of  the  lack  of  work.  Each  one  pays  five  centesimi  every 
Sunday,  and  cannot  take  advantage  of  the  benefits  of  the  so- 
ciety until  he  has  been  a  member  for  six  months,  except  where 

1  "VaUe  di  Pompei,"  Anno  VI,  1896. 

2  G.  Bonetti.i" Cinque  Lustri  di  Storia  dell'  Oratorio  Salesiano,"  Turin, 
1892;  Dr.  D'Espinay,  "Don  Bosco,"  1890;  D.  Giordani,  "La  Gioventii 
di  Don  Bosco,"  1886;  Id.,  "La  CariU  nell'  Educazione,"  1890;  F.  Cerruti, 
"Le  Idee  di  Don  Bosco,"  1886. 


286  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  157 

he  has  paid  down  his  six  months'  fees  upon  entrance,  not  being 
sick  nor  out  of  work  at  the  time.  Each  sick  member  receives 
eighty  centesimi  a  day.  In  Don  Bosco's  institutions  young 
people  of  all  classes  of  society  are  received,  including  deserted 
children.  Don  Bosco  himself  maintains  that  one-fifteenth  of 
the  youths  are  natural  perverts. 

The  Salesians  (or  brethren  of  St.  Francis  of  Sales)  believe 
that  the  system  of  their  institution  exercises  a  beneficent  influ- 
ence even  upon  perverts,  though  they  are  not  able  to  furnish 
any  direct  proof.  Moreover,  they  refuse  to  receive  incorrig- 
ibles,  those  who  have  reached  the  age  of  14  or  15,  convicts, 
and  epileptics.  There  are  about  200  Salesian  institutions  for 
young  people  in  the  two  hemispheres.  Each  contains  150  in- 
mates, or  a  total  of  about  30,000,  to  which  must  be  added  an 
average  of  100  day  scholars,  etc.,  or  20,000  more.  The  inmates 
are  admitted  into  the  schools  at  9  years  of  age  and  into  the  work- 
shops at  12.  After  their  admission  these  young  people  are  kept 
under  observation  in  separate  rooms  during  the  time  set  apart 
for  food  and  rest,  but  not  during  working  hours.  They  are  not 
compelled  to  take  part  in  religious  exercises,  though  advised  to 
do  so;  and  no  special  favor  is  shown  to  those  who  are  especially 
zealous  in  this  regard.  Each  workshop  has  a  clerical  and  a  lay 
director.  The  tools  and  the  designs  are  the  work  of  the  Salesians 
themselves.  There  are,  besides,  50  institutions  for  young  girls, 
with  an  average  of  100  inmates  and  280  day  pupils.  These  are 
exclusively  for  instruction  and  for  household  work.  But  even 
the  Salesian  institutions  follow  the  fatal  tendency  of  the  Latin 
nations,  by  admitting  an  excessive  number  of  young  people  to 
classical  studies  (more  than  500  in  the  institution  at  Turin 
alone),  as  if  the  country  had  not  greater  need  of  energetic 
workmen  than  of  decipherers  of  musty  tomes. 

§  157.  Dr.  Bamardo 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  miracles  of  a  Protestant  saint.*  One 
cold  evening  in  the  winter  of   1866,  Dr.  Barnardo,  who  was 

^  Paolo  Lombroso,  "Le  Case  di  Bamardo  a  Londra,"  1896;  "The 
Barnardo  Homes,"  "Night  and  Day,"  London. 


§  157]   MEASURES  AGAINST  POVERTY  AND  WEALTH    287 

then  studying  medicine,  and  directing  a  "ragged  school"  on 
his  free  evenings,  when  just  on  the  point  of  leaving  the  school, 
saw  that  one  child  remained  in  the  room,  standing  next  to  the 
stove,  without  any  apparent  intention  of  leaving.  Barnardo,  by 
dint  of  many  questions,  succeeded  in  learning  that  the  boy  had 
neither  father,  mother,  friends,  nor  lodging,  that  he  slept  here 
and  there  wherever  he  could,  in  the  places  least  frequented  by 
the  police,  and  that  many  other  children  did  the  same.  Moved 
by  such  excessive  misery,  Barnardo  wanted  to  be  sure  of  the 
truth  and  begged  the  child  to  guide  him  to  the  retreat  of  his 
companions  in  misfortune. 

At  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  he  went  out  with  his  guide, 
and  after  having  passed  through  one  of  the  worst  quarters  of 
London,  they  penetrated  into  a  narrow  court,  traversed  a  long 
shed,  and  found  themselves  before  a  very  high  wall.  Up  this 
wall  the  boy  climbed,  followed  by  the  doctor.  Here  a  strange 
spectacle  presented  itself  to  their  eyes:  upon  a  very  steep  roof, 
with  their  heads  toward  the  ridgepole  and  their  feet  in  the 
gutter,  lay  10  or  12  boys  of  from  12  to  18  years.  It  was 
there,  in  the  midst  of  these  pale  figures  of  distress,  that  Bar-- 
nardo  made  his  vow  to  devote  himself  body  and  soul  to  that 
rescue  work  which  became  from  that  night  the  sole  object  of 
Ms  life.  A  poor  student  and  unknown,  he  yet  succeeded  in 
getting  from  charitable  persons  the  sum  necessary  to  rent  a 
small  house,  capable  of  holding  20  children.  When  his  refuge 
was  ready  he  spent  two  nights  in  gathering  in  his  boys  from 
the  streets.  "I  could  not  possibly,"  he  says,  "imagine  or  de- 
pict a  more  touching  scene  than  that  first  night  in  the  little  old 
house,  when,  before  going  to  sleep,  my  first  family  of  25  children 
knelt  with  me  to  thank  our  common  Father  for  His  goodness 
and  to  pray  that  He,  who  feeds  even  the  sparrows,  would  not 
fail  them  in  their  need." 

This  house,  opened  with  25  children,  prospered,  and  was 
speedily  duplicated.  In  less  than  30  years  the  number  of  houses 
increased  to  87,  which  have  received  more  than  50,000  children, 
from  a  few  weeks  old  up  to  18  or  20  years.  In  addition  there 
have  been  founded  a  great  variety  of  complementary  institu- 
tions: free  dispensaries,  schools  for  the  poor,  Sunday  schools. 


288  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  158 

free  kitchens,  night-lodging  houses,  children's  colonies  in  the 
country,  employment  agencies,  temperance  societies,  soup- 
kitchens,  agencies  for  immigrants  and  emigrants.  It  is  strange 
to  see  from  what  a  peculiar  mixture  of  idealism,  practical  under- 
standing, quick  comprehension,  and  blind  trust  in  God  this 
colossal  work  has  arisen.  In  each  of  the  numerous  cases  which 
Barnardo  reports,  he  notes  as  a  moral  conclusion  what  the 
saving  of  that  individual  cost.  "With  £10  sterling  and  the 
help  of  God,"  the  doctor  concludes,  mathematically  and  ingenu- 
ously, "a  life  has  been  saved."  In  his  paper,  "Night  and  Day," 
published  in  the  interest  of  his  houses,  we  find  notices  like  this : 
"We  need  a  good  farm  under  cultivation,  about  50  miles  from 
London,  etc.";  and  to  this  notice,  given  vnth  such  simple  con- 
fidence, is  added  a  list  of  the  needs  of  his  great  family  of  8000 
children:  stockings,  night-gowns,  bed-clothes,  sewing-machines, 
a  harmonium,  old  linen  for  new-born  children,  and  finally  a 
magic  lantern. 

The  same  bold  grasp  with  which  Barnardo  began  his  work 
of  child-saving  he  applied  to  the  art  of  finding  the  means  of 
subsistence  for  his  institutions.  For  this  army,  which  grew  to 
a  total  of  100,000,  he  took  the  public  alone  for  collaborator, 
but  he  organized  the  work  so  that  he  had  something  for  every 
one  to  do.  Those  who  have  money  give  it,  and  those  who  have 
none  give  their  work,  if  not  every  day,  then  one  day  in  the  week. 
We  may  say  of  Barnardo  that  he  knew  how  to  transform  sym- 
pathy into  money,  and  then  to  recast  it  as  charity. 

In  this  matter  how  far  the  Anglo-Saxons  have  gone  beyond 
the  Latins! 

§  158.  The  Ineffectiveness  of  Charity 

However  useful  it  may  be,  charity  is,  after  all,  but  an  inef- 
fective palliative  against  an  immense  amount  of  need  and 
distress.  Unavoidably  subject  to  human  passions,  charity  de- 
pends not  only  upon  economic  conditions,  but  also  upon  the 
sentimental  condition  of  men.  The  effect  of  an  intermittent 
pity  or  of  the  caprice  of  the  moment,  it  never  completely  at- 
tains its  end,  and,  considering  the  vastness  of  the  abyss,  is  not 


§  158]   MEASURES  AGAINST  POVERTY  AND  WEALTH    289 

capable  of  filling  it  up  by  the  strenuous  efforts  of  individuals 
adapted  to  the  need.  Even  if  the  rich  wish  to  restore  in  this 
way  a  part  or  even  the  whole  of  what  has  been  acquired,  for 
the  most  part,  by  means  quite  other  than  honest,  it  is  not  pos- 
sible. It  is  as  if,  after  shearing  a  lamb,  one  should  try  to  fasten 
the  wool  once  more  upon  its  back.  The  intention  might  be 
good,  but  the  wool  would  not  grow  again. 

Three-fourths  of  the  cases  of  distress,  in  fact,  escape  this 
remedy,  and  those  who  are  helped  by  it  are  helped  insufficiently 
and  badly,  entirely  apart  from  the  fact  that  a  third  of  the 
money  spent  for  charity  goes  for  administration,  and  so  comes 
again  into  the  coffers  of  the  well-to-do.  Many  institutions, 
charitable  in  name,  merely  serve  to  keep  the  poor  in  subjec- 
tion to  the  church.  Thus  I  have  seen  aid  refused  to  a  family 
simply  because  one  of  its  members  read  a  newspaper  which 
was  not  even  irreligious,  and  many  times  in  order  to  get  bread 
the  unfortunate  are  obliged  to  be  present  at  religious  services 
as  often  as  three  times  in  a  day,  losing  thereby  more  time 
than  would  have  been  needed  to  gain  by  working  the  means  of 
satisfying  their  hunger. 

Then,  however  disguised  it  may  be,  public  charity  does  not 
usually  give  its  help  to  the  person  who,  though  most  needy, 
is  also  most  sensitive  and  feels  most  keenly  the  shame  of  re- 
ceiving alms.  It  debases  man  instead  of  relieving  him,  since 
it  extinguishes  in  his  heart  all  sense  of  personal  dignity,  and 
takes  away  every  spontaneous  impulse  to  struggle  and  win 
his  own  place  in  life. 

For  eighteen  hundred  years  the  saying  of  the  gospel,  "Quod 
superest,  date  pauperibus,"  has  been  preached,  and  yet  social 
evil  and  misery  have  become  greater  and  greater.  If  this  maxim 
was  little  heeded  when  the  religious  sentiment  was  still  very 
quick  and  general,  why  should  it  be  heeded  to-day,  in  condi- 
tions so  little  favorable,  in  a  society  like  ours,  where  each  one 
is  obliged  to  look  out  for  his  own  interests?  Earlier,  when  small 
land-holdings  were  the  rule,  when  communication  was  little 
developed,  the  landed  proprietor  or  the  master-workman  could 
always,  or  nearly  always,  give  work  to  the  few  people  who  asked 
for  it.    But  if  nowadays  you  were  to  ask  the  manager  of  a  large 


290  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  158 

factory  to  give  work  to  all  the  unemployed  who  knock  at  his 
door,  he  would  tell  you  —  and  rightly  —  that  if  he  followed 
your  advice  he  would  fail  at  the  end  of  a  week.  Now,  suppos- 
ing the  sentiment  of  charity  were  to  prevail,  what  could  alms 
to  individuals  do  against  the  tide  of  unemployment  and  dis- 
tress which,  in  modern  society,  affects  a  great  and  continually 
increasing  multitude  of  persons?  Thus,  the  best  of  our  insti- 
tutions, mountain  resorts,  hospitals,  etc.,  for  the  cure  of  poor 
children,  only  lower  the  morbidity  and  mortality  from  50%  to 
47%.  Now,  by  preventing  night  work  for  the  young,  by  giving 
lunches  to  school-children,  you  will  see  this  morbidity  and 
mortality  diminish  in  much  greater  proportion  than  with  all 
those  other  institutions. 

Charity  and  want  are  related  to  each  other  as  two  parallel 
lines,  which  can  never  come  together,  while,  by  having  recourse 
to  the  human  interests,  with  egoism  for  ally,  it  is  possible  to 
fill  up  the  gap  between  them.  Thus,  the  adoption  of  the  eight- 
hour  working  day,  while  economizing  the  powers  of  the  work- 
man, would  permit  the  employment  of  a  greater  number,  and 
at  the  same  time  allow  better  work.  The  workman,  now  ab- 
sorbed by  the  hard  labor  of  the  shop,  which  is  killing  him, 
would  be  able  to  busy  himself  with  his  family,  experience  the 
sweetness  of  family  life  instead  of  the  mere  burden  of  it,  and 
be  able  to  acquire  a  greater  degree  of  culture,  which  would  be  a 
new  weapon  against  crime.  It  is  by  work  equitably  distributed 
among  all  the  unemployed,  more  than  by  charity,  that  the  con- 
dition of  the  poor  may  be  improved  economically  and  morally. 
The  collective  control  of  the  necessities  of  life,  which  is  now 
limited  to  schools,  lighting,  baths,  and  sometimes  to  hospitals 
and  tramways,  if  extended  in  the  same  way  to  food,  housing, 
and  clothing,  would  be  a  complete  substitute  for  the  charity  of 
former  times,  and  the  true  preventive  of  all  occasional  crimes. 
Further,  by  preventing  the  excesses  and  dangers  of  poverty 
and  of  riches,  it  would  be  useful  to  all  classes;  for  the  insect  and 
the  microbe  which  convey  the  diseases  of  the  poor  to  the  man- 
sions of  the  rich  are  truly  the  Eumenides  punishing  the  rich  for 
forgetting  the  poor,  just  as  the  famine,  that  originates  in  the 
speculation  of  the  rich,  multiplies  diseases  among  the  poor,  and 


§  158]   MEASURES  AGAINST  POVERTY  AND  WEALTH    291 

these  in  turn  come  back  upon  those  who  caused  them.  One 
may  say  the  same  of  many  of  the  occasional  crimes  caused  by 
the  neglect  of  the  poor  on  the  part  of  the  rich.  Theft,  anarchy, 
murder,  and  revolt  are  simply  evil  consequences  coming  back 
upon  the  heads  of  those  who  set  the  cause  in  motion. 


CHAPTER  V 

RELIGION 
§159. 

IT  is  time  to  free  ourselv^es  from  the  atavistic  tendency, 
which  has  survived  unnoticed  even  in  the  most  scientific 
observer,  to  regard  religion  as  a  universal  panacea  for  crime. 
Let  us  recall  how  slowly  we  have  been  freed  from  the  religious 
shell,  from  which  have  come  the  first  attempts  not  only  at 
morals,  but  also  at  art  and  science,  so  that  once  no  one  could 
be  painter,  sculptor,  poet,  architect,  or  physician,  without  first 
being  priest  (Spencer).  But  at  length  art  and  science,  those 
noble  plants  that  grew  up  modestly  in  the  shadow  of  the  temple, 
are  completely  freed  from  its  influence,  and  there  remains  to 
the  priest,  who  once  dominated  every  department  of  knowledge, 
a  monopoly  not  even  of  morals  and  charity;  for  many  profess 
a  charity  and  an  ethics  apart  from  religion,  and  on  all  sides  there 
are  rising  ethical  societies,  free  from  all  rites. 

We  cannot,  then,  find  in  religion,  at  least  as  it  is  understood 
in  Latin  countries,  a  remedy  against  crime. 

"The  true  morality,"  we  may  say  with  Sergi,^  "  is  instinctive; 
the  moral  sense  is  like  the  feeling  of  pity;  if  it  does  not  already 
exist,  neither  religious  nor  educative  influence,  nor  any  precept, 
will  be  able  to  create  it. 

"Religion  is  a  system  of  instruction  by  precepts,  which  have, 
like  all  other  moral  rules,  an  exterior  sanction  remote  from 
reality  and  the  daily  life;  and  not  only  is  it  not  able  to  fortify 
the  character,  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  can  only  enfeeble  it,  by 
minimizing  the  personality  by  asceticism  even  to  the  point  of 
annihilation. 

"It  is  from  religion  that  springs  the  monstrous  phenomenon 
of  men  externally  religious  and  respected  for  ecclesiastical  and 
divine  authority,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  immoral  in  their 
social  relations." 

»  "Tribuna  Giudiziaria,"  1896. 


§  159]  RELIGION  293 

But  how  is  it,  some  one  will  ask,  that  religion  shows  itself  at 
times  as  a  useful  moral  force  against  crime?  We  reply,  that  re- 
ligion can  have  a  beneficent  influence  only  when,  being  in  a 
nascent  state,  it  can  transform  itself  into  a  violent  passion. 
"Delia"  furnishes  us  with  a  magnificent  example  of  such  a 
transformation  } 

Delia  lost  her  mother  at  an  early  age,  and  was  carefully 
brought  up  in  a  convent.  Seduced  in  the  first  place  by  a  young 
lawyer,  and  then  ravished  by  a  priest  while  under  the  influence 
of  a  narcotic,  she  abandoned  herself  to  a  life  of  prostitution 
and  drunkenness.  She  was  three  times  sent  to  correctional 
institutions,  and  finally  released  because  she  refused  all  food 
while  imprisoned.  She  joined  a  band  of  thieves,  of  which  she 
soon  became  the  head  because  of  her  energy  and  muscular 
agility.  She  fought  with  the  police  and  with  her  own  compan- 
ions, so  that  she  was  arrested  seven  times.  She  aided  thieves 
in  their  exploits;  but  she  would  not  permit  the  weak  to  be  struck 
in  her  presence,  and  would  defend  them  at  the  risk  of  her  own 
life.  She  was  devoted  to  the  sick,  took  care  of  them,  and  de- 
fended them  against  those  who  wanted  to  rob  them.  The  police 
called  her  the  "  Wonder,"  but  her  companions  called  her  the 
"Bluebird,"  doubtless  from  the  color  she  preferred.  A  mission- 
ary, Mrs.  Whittemore,  on  the  25th  of  May,  1891,  went  into  the 
dives  of  Mulberry  Bend,  where  she  gathered  these  thieves  to- 
gether and  tried  to  hold  a  religious  service;  but  being  excited 
by  the  arrest  of  two  men  of  their  band,  they  would  not  even  let 
her  sing.  They  would  certainly  have  revenged  themselves  upon 
the  missionaries  if  these  had  not  been  protected  by  Delia,  who 
afterward  accompanied  them  into  the  opium  dens  of  Mott 
Street,  where  the  worst  criminals  in  New  York  assemble.  Upon 
leaving  her  Mrs.  Whittemore  gave  her  a  rose,  which  she  made 
a  half-mystical  omen,  begging  her  to  be  converted  and  to  come 
to  her  with  the  flower.  But  the  Bluebird  answered,  that  as  for 
money,  she  found  it  quite  natural  to  take  it  from  any  one  who 
had  it;  as  for  the  rest,  she  added,  "I  have  committed  already 
all  the  sins  that  it  is  possible  for  me  to  commit,  and  I  should 
1  Whittemore,  "Delia." 


294  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  159 

not  be  able  to  live  in  any  other  way  "  (she  was  then  twenty-three 
years  old).  She  promised,  however,  to  come  to  one  of  the  mis- 
sion halls,  and  kept  her  word.  In  the  evening  she  went  to  return 
her  enchanted  rose,  and  confessed  that  she  had  passed  a  very 
troubled  day,  trying  to  drown  her  doubts  in  drink;  but  the 
more  she  drank  the  more  she  became  the  mistress  of  herself. 
In  the  evening,  perceiving  that  the  flower  was  withering,  she 
became  thoughtful,  and  recalled  the  days  when  she  too  was 
pure,  like  the  rose.  She  saw  the  years  falling  away  one  by  one 
like  the  petals  of  the  flower;  and  immediately  her  resolution 
was  taken,  and  she  told  her  companions  that  she  was  quitting 
them.  The  same  evening,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  she  presented 
herself  at  the  mission,  where  Mrs.  Whittemore  embraced  her 
tenderly,  and  asked  her  to  pray  with  her. 

From  that  day  she  gave  up  drink,  opium,  and  tobacco,  and 
asked  to  be  allowed  to  go  to  see  one  of  her  old  boon  companions 
in  prison,  in  order  to  convert  him.  She  was  sent  to  the  hospital 
very  ill  with  consumption  and  syphilis.  When,  on  coming  out, 
she  was  invited  to  drink,  she  resisted  the  inclination.  When 
she  was  cured  she  set  herself  to  work  to  convert  her  old  com- 
panions of  Mulberry  Bend.  She  also  addressed  1500  convicts 
at  Auburn.  "What  have  we  gained,"  she  said,  "by  serving 
the  devil?  Prison,  misery,  contempt,  and  disease.  When  I 
was  at  my  worst  and  delighted  in  making  others  afraid  of  me, 
I  was  myself  often  afraid,  and  would  not  go  to  bed  without  a 
bright  light  burning  beside  me.  In  the  morning  I  used  to  ask 
myself  whether  I  would  not  lie  in  prison  that  night.  I  remember 
that  when  a  lady  once  said  to  me,  'Have  you  found  Jesus.'*'  I 
replied,  'No,  is  he  lost!'  for  I  hated  the  Protestants.  My  reli- 
gion was  purely  one  of  form.  If  you  ask  me  how  much  time 
it  took  me  to  give  up  my  life  of  sin  forever,  I  will  answer  you: 
about  three  minutes,  the  time  it  took  to  ask  God  to  do  it." 
In  11  months  she  converted  more  than  100.  She  died  of  con- 
sumption within  the  year,  but  the  stir  that  she  made  was  so 
great  that  after  her  death  80  of  her  companions  became,  or 
appeared  to  become,  honest. 

I  do  not  guarantee  the  conversion  of  these  last,  but  that  of 


§  159]  RELIGION  295 

Delia  is  certain.  This  is  proved  by  the  change  in  her  face  as 
shown  by  her  photographs.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
she  was  led  to  a  life  of  prostitution  and  crime,  not  by  preco- 
cious criminaUty  but  by  a  rape  committed  while  she  was  drugged. 
Further,  even  in  her  criminal  career,  she  was  always  the  pro- 
tectress of  the  weak.  It  is  plain,  then,  that  she  was  rather  a 
criminaloid  than  a  born  criminal.  However  that  may  be,  the 
promptitude  of  her  conversion  (it  was,  she  said,  an  affair  of 
three  minutes)  under  the  influence  of  a  suggestive  impression, 
and,  further,  the  ardor  that  she  brought  to  it,  both  go  to  prove 
that  in  this  case  the  religious  passion,  in  the  nascent  state, 
stifles  all  the  other  passions. 

Similar  cases  may  be  adduced,  Uke  that  related  to  me  by 
the  Baptists,  of  a  drunken  thief  who  was  converted  at  a  stroke 
by  the  sermons  and  example  of  the  missionaries,  and  perse- 
vered in  the  right  way.  But  these  are  absolutely  individual, 
and  cannot  be  cited  in  favor  of  rehgion.  They  furnish  no  proof 
that  rehgion  as  organized  with  us,  among  whom  these  fruitful 
fanaticisms  do  not  flourish,  has  any  eflScacy  in  the  cure  of  crimi- 
naUty. It  is  to  be  noted,  moreover,  that  these  miracles  occur 
especially  among  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  Swiss.  We  are  forced 
to  conclude  that  what  is  commonly  attributed  to  the  influence 
of  religion  is  really  due  to  race  and  to  advanced  civilization, 
which  carries  these  people  towards  great  ideals  and  noble 
fanaticisms,  while  with  the  development  of  culture  the  rehgious 
sentiment  each  day  grows  weaker.  It  is  thus  that  we  find 
proofs  of  a  noble  zeal  in  the  societies  for  ethical  culture,^  and 
among  the  Good  Templars,  which  are  ethical  and  anti-alcoholic 
rather  than  religious. 

"In  the  Calvinistic  countries,"  writes  Ferrero,  "religion 
enrolls  thousands  of  fanatics,  who,  under  the  most  diverse  names 
and  theories,  are  feverishly  active,  not  in  honor  of  a  rite  but  in 
order  to  save  the  souls  of  men.  In  Italy,  as  in  France,  no  one 
ever  succeeds  in  bringing  about  a  great  flood  of  moral  protest 
against  the  most  serious  social  evils;  and  enthusiastic  and 
active  spirits  must  seek  elsewhere  for  a  field  in  which  to  employ 
their  energy."  ^ 

1  Pfungst,  "Ueber  die  Gesellschaft  fiir  Ethische  Kultur,"  1896. 

2  "Vita  Moderna,"  1893. 


296  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  159 

Take  the  Salvation  Army,  for  example.^  This  institution 
was  founded  by  Booth,  under  the  most  eccentric  exterior  forms, 
with  a  mihtary  hierarchy  and  bizarre  uniforms,  but  with  the 
holiest  and  soberest  intentions.  It  is  a  sort  of  a  sect  that  has 
for  its  aim  the  prevention  and  combatting  of  vice  and  crime, 
even  with  the  strangest  weapons.  It  contends  against  alco- 
holism with  meetings,  cheap  temperance  hotels,  "elevators," 
and  people's  kitchens  (which  last  in  1895  distributed  3,398,078 
meals).  It  fights  vagrancy  with  dormitories,  which  give  lodg- 
ings every  night  to  more  than  4100  persons,  where  many  per- 
sons are  converted  by  evangeUstic  meetings.  The  Salvation 
Army  puts  within  reach  of  the  unfortunate  everything  that  may 
be  able  to  draw  them  from  evil  ways;  it  enrolls  them  in  em- 
ployment agencies,  which  in  the  year  1895  alone  found  work 
for  19,372  persons;  or  receives  them  into  its  "elevators,"  special 
establishments,  where  they  are  employed  at  paid  work  or 
taught  a  trade  if  they  have  none,  until  situations  can  be  found 
for  them.  Or  they  may  be  placed  in  the  farm-villages  of  the 
Army,  with  which  they  may  remain  in  relation  for  four  years. 
For  convicts  the  Salvation  Army  has  addresses  in  the  prisons. 
It  enrolls  the  more  promising  subjects  as  soldiers  in  the  ranks, 
and  admits  another  part  of  them  into  a  special  estabhshment, 
where  it  attempts  to  repair  the  defects  of  their  moral  and  prac- 
tical education,  especially  by  teaching  them  a  trade.  From 
here  they  pass  to  the  "elevators"  and  then  into  the  employ  of 
private  individuals,  or  to  the  farm-villages,  etc.  The  Army 
owns,  besides,  84  bureaus  for  the  unfortunate,  the  office  of 
which  is  the  direct  and  personal  effort  to  conquer  vice.  In  a 
year  they  visited  about  58,723  poor  families  in  private  houses, 
15,702  persons  in  public-houses,  and  7500  in  lodging  houses, 
giving  assistance  to  at  least  3887  sick  persons.  The  army  also 
maintains  special  institutions  for  children,  who  are  sent  as 
speedily  as  possible  to  the  country.  For  women  the  army 
maintains  9  special  dormitories,  and  13  Rescue  Homes,  which 
almost  hterally  snatch  women  from  pubUc-houses  and  other 
doubtful  resorts.     They  give  employment  to  1556  women,  and 

1  White,  Park,  and  Ferrari,  "Truth  about  the  Salvation  Army,"  Lon- 
don, 1892;   Booth,  "Light  in  Darkest  England,"  London,  1892. 


§  159]  RELIGION  297 

after  a  certain  time  find  places  for  them  in  private  houses,  or 
send  them  to  their  farms.  It  is  remarkable  to  see  how  quiet  a 
reception  these  new  soldiers  of  charity  meet  with.  Their  houses, 
"elevators,"  and  farms  are  open,  and  any  one  who  wishes  can 
go  in  or  come  out;  and  one  who  has  left  and  comes  back  again 
is  always  received  as  a  prodigal  son,  and  enjoys  complete  Hberty. 

The  principle  of  the  work  of  the  Wesleyans  is  not  radically 
different.  When  Marcus,  one  of  their  leaders,  had  revealed 
the  horrors  of  the  condition  of  the  poor  of  London,  they  threw 
themselves  headlong  into  the  work  of  converting  the  vicious 
and  alcoholic.^  Hughes,  one  of  their  great  apostles,  said  in  a 
sermon,  "We  must  not  be  so  wrapped  up  in  saving  the  soul 
that  we  forget  to  save  the  body,"  and  with  the  accents  of  the 
profoundest  conviction  he  carried  hundreds  of  persons  with 
him,  who  professed  themselves  converted  and  confided  them- 
selves to  his  pastoral  guidance.  They  choose  the  hours  when 
men  are  most  in  danger,  the  social  hours  as  they  call  them, 
between  9  and  11,  invite  them  to  evening  gatherings,  treat 
them  well,  and  get  them  to  sign  the  pledge.  They  visit  the 
most  infected  places,  where  their  sisters  discover  and  save  the 
women  who  are  in  danger.  One  of  them  one  day  saw  a  young 
girl  being  led  into  a  public  house  by  a  Hbertine.  Accosting  her 
she  said,  "Remember  that  you  are  a  woman,"  and  kissed  her 
on  the  forehead.  The  girl,  much  moved,  replied,  "I  will  never 
go  into  a  public-house  again;  but  take  us  in  every  evening,  if 
you  do  not  want  us  to  fall  into  evil  again." 

In  the  "Protestant  Association  for  the  Practical  Study  of 
the  Social  Question,"  we  find  partisans  of  the  idea  of  the  par- 
ticipation of  labor  in  the  benefits  of  capital.  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
who  transformed  the  condition  of  the  miners  in  England, 
advocated  also  insurance  against  industrial  accidents.^ 

The  order  of  Good  Templars,  founded  in  New  York  in  1862, 
and  that  of  the  Blue  Cross,  founded  in  Geneva  in  1877,  number 
respectively  500,000  and  10,000  members,  who  are  required  to 
abstain  for  a  certain  time  from  all  alcoholic  drinks,  and  succeed 

1  "Revue  du  Christianisme  Praticante,"  1890-95;  Malcolm  Taylor, 
"Portraits  and  Pictures  of  the  West,"  London,  1893;  Marcus,  The 
Bitter  Cry  of  the  Outcast,"  London,  1893. 

2  "Travaux  du  Congr^s  de  Montaubon,"  Pans,  1885. 


298  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  159 

in  doing  it.  All  this  explains  why  it  is  that  in  Protestant 
countries,  especially  in  Switzerland  and  England,  alcoholism 
is  decreasing,  while  it  is  increasing  in  Catholic  countries. 

Can  we  say  that  our  Salesians  and  Sisters  have  accomplished 
more.'^  Far  from  it!  To  attain  similar  results,  or  even  to 
strive  after  them,  there  is  necessary  a  degree  of  ideality  not  to 
be  found  in  the  old  races,  who  shut  themselves  up  within  their 
ritual  observances  and  reach  their  highest  development  in  a 
dictator,  whether  he  be  pope,  general  of  an  order,  or  saint. 
This  is  a  fact  which  I  have  directly  demonstrated  by  putting 
side  by  side  the  work  of  Don  Bosco  and  that  of  Doctor  Bar- 
nardo.  In  Italy  we  see  crime  effectively  combatted  by  rare 
individualities,  but  they  are  either  dissenters,  like  Lazarretti,  or 
at  least  have  had  for  some  time  their  center  of  action  outside 
the  orbit  of  the  official  church,  like  Don  Bosco  and  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi.  In  either  case  they  constitute,  for  the  moment  at 
least,  a  new  religion,  palpitating  with  life,  and  in  a  httle  time 
would  form  a  schism,  if  the  prudent  statesmanship  of  Rome 
did  not  take  precautions  to  draw  them  once  more  within  the 
circle  of  her  influence. 

Hence  it  comes  that  saints  like  Don  Bosco  and  Bartolo  Longo 
do  not  arise  without  having  obstacles  everywhere  placed  in 
their  way  by  those  very  ecclesiastical  authorities  who  ought  to 
build  altars  to  them.  It  is  for  the  same  reason  that  when  they 
wish  to  raise  themselves  up  to  the  level  of  the  advanced  ideas 
of  our  own  time  they  only  half  succeed;  and  instead  of  starting 
the  children  under  their  care  in  the  more  useful  trades,  on  a 
large  scale,  by  organizing  emigration  parties,  or  clearing  the 
land,  as  Dr.  Barnardo  did,  they  succeed  only  in  creating  great 
monasteries,  and  in  turning  out  priests  and  classical  scholars  for 
whom  society  has  no  place.  They  are  saints,  in  short,  of  a 
time  remote  from  our  own,  whose  work,  however  vast  it  may 
be,  is  still  necessarily  short  of  the  needs  of  the  present,  and 
rarely  reaches  the  roots  of  crime.  However  admirable  they 
may  be  for  genius  or  sanctity,  they  must  conform  to  the  will  of 
the  higher  authority  and  show  that  they  have  more  at  heart 
the  triumph  of  the  rites  of  Rome  than  that  of  virtue.  If  not, 
they  are  suppressed.     Thus  it  is  that  Don  Bosco  had  for  his 


§159]  RELIGION  299 

final  aim  the  creation  of  Salesian  priests;  just  as  the  object 
sought  by  Bartolo  Longo  was  the  worship  of  Our  Lady  of 
Pompeii.  Now,  even  if,  by  giving  to  deserted  children  a  trade 
and  an  education  which  was  certainly  moral,  they  prevented 
the  occurrence  of  some  accidental  crimes,  they  could  never  in 
this  way  save  the  true  criminaloid  and  criminal  born. 

We  may  conclude,  then,  by  saying  that  ritual  and  Hturgical 
formulae  are  much  more  in  evidence  in  institutions  of  this 
kind,  than  the  rules  necessary  for  a  practical  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  Latin  charities,  the  support  of  the 
public  is  almost  never  associated  with  that  of  the  founder.  It 
never  manifests  itself  personally,  and  is  consequently  less 
interested  and  less  efficacious;  since  the  power  of  these  great 
apostles  lies  completely  in  their  own  personality,  they  have  all 
the  merit  and  all  the  responsibility,  and  when  they  leave  the 
scene  they  leave  an  empty  place  that  cannot  be  filled.  In  the 
French  orphan  asylums,  Joly  tells  us,  for  a  long  time  only  the 
religious  interests  of  the  children  was  thought  of.^  They  were 
put  into  a  brotherhood  without  being  given  any  trade.  Roussel 
also  remarks  that  the  church  charities  in  France  are  all  for 
young  girls,  so  that  neglected  boys  have  no  other  refuge  than 
the  prisons  and  houses  of  correction;  moreover,  the  Catholic 
orphanages  almost  never  receive  illegitimate  children,  and, 
unlike  the  Protestants,  who  try  to  throw  as  much  light  of 
publicity  on  their  own  organizations  as  possible,  the  Catholic 
institutions  do  all  they  can  to  escape  it,  and  are  never  willing 
to  report  except  to  the  bishop  and  to  Rome.  The  pupils  of 
the  orphanages  grow  up  without  any  knowledge  of  the  world, 
and  are  consequently  incapable  of  maldng  a  future  for  them- 
selves.2 

In  conclusion  we  may  say  that  Anglo-Saxon  charity  differ- 
entiates itseK  from  the  Latin  still  more  fundamentally  through 
taking  particular  care  to  preserve  the  self-respect  of  its  bene- 
ficiaries, by  making  use  of  their  services,  by  making  itself,  in 
fact,  cooperative  and  mutual;  and  it  concerns  itself  especially 
with  the  very  young,  to  whom  Latin  charity  pays  little  atten- 

1  Joly,  "Le  Combat  contre  le  Crime,"  p.  91. 

2  Roussel,  "Enquete  sur  les  Orphelinats,"  1882. 


300  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  159 

tion,  feeding  them  at  most.  Among  the  Anglo-Saxbns  we  see 
religious  groups  like  the  Salvation  Army  and  the  Baptists  pro- 
posing, as  their  great  aim  in  life,  redemption  from  crime,  the 
prevention  of  alcoholism,  and  the  care  of  infancy.  And  if  the 
influence  of  individual  men,  like  Booth  and  Barnardo,  through 
their  inspiration  and  genius,  counts  for  much  in  the  search  for 
better  methods,  they  are  not  indispensable,  for  there  is  always 
a  legion  of  fellow-workers,  who  by  their  numbers  and  enthusi- 
asm ensure  the  support  of  the  public. 

Here  then,  it  is  not  religion  in  general,  that  deserves  the 
credit,  but  certain  religions  only,  or,  better  still,  the  ideal  ten- 
dency of  certain  progressive  races.  However,  we  must  say  of 
the  operation  of  religion,  as  we  have  said  of  that  of  charity,  that 
it  is  always  individual,  limited,  and  less  effective  than  the 
economic  influence,  which  alone  is  universally  felt  by  the 
masses. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION  —  EDUCATION  —  REFORM 
SCHOOLS,    ETC. 

§  i6o. 

npo  say  that  the  influence  of  mere  instruction  upon  crime  is 
-■-  beneficent  is  an  exaggeration  in  which  no  one  any  longer 
believes.  To  instruct  the  criminal  is  to  perfect  him  in  evil, 
and  to  give  him  new  weapons  against  society.  It  is  necessary 
above  all  to  suppress  the  schools  in  the  prisons,  which  serve 
only  to  multiply  recidivists,  as  I  have  shown  in  the  first  and 
second  volumes  of  my  "Homme  Criminel."  Let  us  seek,  on 
the  contrary,  to  extend  education  to  the  greatest  possible 
number  of  honest  persons;  let  us  strengthen  the  body,  occupy- 
ing it  pleasantly  with  gymnastics,  marches,  and  dances  in  the 
open  air;  ^  let  us  prevent  idleness  and  precocious  lasciviousness, 
more  by  these  means  than  by  simple  precepts.  It  would  also 
be  necessary  to  choose  married  teachers  by  preference,  and  to 
suppress  the  schools  in  monasteries  and  convents.  When  in 
the  elementary  schools  a  child  is  found  who  has  the  known 
marks  of  the  born  criminal,  he  must  first  of  all  be  separated 
from  the  others  and  given  a  special  training  with  the  object  of 
strengthening  the  inhibitory  centers,  always  underdeveloped 
with  this  class,  and  of  subduing  or  diverting  the  criminal  tend- 
encies by  supplying  them  with  a  new  outlet,  while  preventing 
the  pupil  from  acquiring  dangerous  arts.  Let  us  recall  here 
the  confession  of  born  criminals  themselves,  that  education 
was  for  them  a  powerful  auxiliary  to  evil.  It  is  the  more  to  be 
feared  nowadays  when  political  conditions  permit  born  crimi- 
nals, who  have  received  an  education,  to  have  easier  access  to 
political  power  than  honest  men  have,  because  of  the  corrup- 

^  Physical  training  is  a  school  of  continence  and  chastity.  A  society 
for  the  cultivation  of  morals  would  attain  its  end  better  by  giving  the 
youth  a  taste  for  gymnastics,  etc.,  than  by  sermons. 


302  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  160 

tion,  violence,  intrigue,  and  fraud  which  dominate  in  the  pohti- 
cal  world.  How  many  misfortunes,  how  much  blood,  would 
not  Italy  and  France  have  been  spared  if  Napoleon,  Boulanger, 
and  Crispi  had  been  illiterate! 

In  order  that  the  school  may  be  useful,  not  negatively  as 
now,  but  positively,  we  must  change  the  basis  of  our  educa- 
tion, which,  at  present,  by  its  admiration  of  beauty  and  force, 
leads  to  idleness  and  violence.  We  must  place  in  the  first  rank 
special  schools  for  agriculture;  and  in  the  other  schools  we 
must  give  first  place  to  manual  work,  in  this  way  substituting 
something  practical  and  exact  for  the  nebulous  mirages  of  the 
antique.  This  course,  coupled  with  very  heavy  taxes  upon 
universities,  would  relieve  us  of  this  deluge  of  the  "declasse,"  ^ 
which  we  increase  daily  by  new  university  facilities. 

"Up  to  the  present,"  writes  Sergi,  "the  school  has  debated 
upon  the  best  way  to  teach  the  alphabet,  how  it  is  possible  to 
learn  to  write  soonest,  and  what  is  the  best  method  of  develop- 
ing the  intelligence;  but  it  does  not  teach  us  any  method  of 
directing  our  feelings  and  impulses.  Education,  like  hygiene, 
is  designed  to  preserve  sound  health.  Now  any  director  or 
teacher  of  hygiene  must  necessarily  know  how  to  discriminate 
between  normal  and  disturbed  functions,  must  be  able  to  recog- 
nize what  causes  disturbance  and  to  prevent  it.  The  same  is 
true  of  the  educator.  He  must  know  the  nature  of  the  human 
soul;  how  it  works  and  acts  individually  and  in  society;  what 
organic  causes  may  alter  its  manifestations;  and  what  external 
and  social  causes  may  disturb  its  normal  functions.  Our  edu- 
cators are  not  educated  in  this  sense.  They  enter  the  schools  to 
bring  up  the  children,  without  any  definite  conception  of  the 
difficult  end  they  are  supposed  to  attain.  Each  little  human 
being  who  goes  to  school  is  a  problem  with  several  unknown 
quantities,  but  he  is  treated  as  a  problem  already  solved! 

"In  place  of  increasing  the  number  of  classical  schools,  reduce 
them  to  the  minimum,  and  transform  all  the  others  into  schools 
of  business,  arts,  and  trades,  professional  and  practical  schools 
corresponding  to  the  demands  of  modern  life.  Introduce  into 
these  schools  the  cultivation  of  the  intelligence  and  character 
needed  for  daily  life;  by  these  means  you  vnW  inculcate  the 
habit  of  working,  which  is  in  itself  a  very  efficacious  education. 

1  Any  one  who  doubts  the  truth  of  this  assertion  has  only  to  recall 
the  classicism  of  the  revolutionists  of  1789,  and  to  read  Valles's  "Le  Bache- 
lier  et  I'lnsurge,"  in  order  to  become  convinced  that  this  instruction,  out 
of  harmony  with  the  times,  results  only  in  making  rebels  and  "declasses." 


§  161]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  303 

When  we  have  numerous  schools  of  arts  and  trades,  manual 
labor  will  be  ennobled,  whereas  now  any  one  who  wants  to  learn 
a  trade  must  serve  under  a  master-workman,  and  learns  it  by 
practice  more  or  less  badly.  The  principal  object  of  every 
school  should  be  the  education  of  the  character,  upon  which 
all  conduct  depends.  It  should  strengthen  it  where  it  is  weak, 
create  it  where  it  does  not  yet  exist,  and  direct  it  where  it  lacks 
direction." 

§  i6i.  Family  Education 

In  this  regard  the  family  can  accomplish  far  more  than  the 
teacher.  No  one  has  ever  set  himself  to  investigate  what 
relation  there  is  between  success  in  school,  and  success  or  non- 
success  in  life;  no  one  has  investigated  the  relations  between 
the  physical  and  ethnic  energies,  typical  of  a  young  man, 
and  the  unforeseen  contingencies  and  accidents  of  the  life  of 
the  future  citizen.^  It  is  to  this  especially  that  the  family 
should  apply  itself.  Yet  with  us  the  family  relies  upon  the 
school  for 'the  care  of  education,  while  the  schoolmaster,  for 
his  part,  who  in  any  case  could  do  little  because  of  the  great 
number  of  pupils  demanding  his  attention,  counts  upon  what 
the  family  is  supposed  to  accomplish.  Thus  both  remain 
inactive  just  where  crime  could  be  most  effectively  prevented. 
The  family-public  does  not  realize  that  into  the  integration  of 
the  state  and  the  destination  of  the  child,  vocation  and  apti- 
tudes enter  as  exponents  and  the  lack  of  intellectual  preparation 
as  a  coefficient;  and  that  to  obtain  the  integration  there  is 
needed  the  union  and  the  continuity  of  all  forces,  including 
those  for  whose  developments  the  parents  must  earnestly 
strive. 

Yet  very  little  is  necessary  to  bring  about  this  reform  in 
education. 

"The  children  of  a  loving  mother,"  writes  Garofalo,^  "affec- 
tionate or  severe  as  the  case  demands,  become  accustomed  to 
watch  for  the  approbation  or  blame  in  her  look.  What  penalty 
can  be  greater  than  the  grieved  reproof  which  the  mother  gives 

1  Francis  Galton,  "On  International  Anthropometry."  "Bulletin  of 
the  International  Institute  of  Statistics,"  1890;    "Idea  Liberale,"  1896. 

2  "L'Educazione  in  Rapporto  alia  Criminality,,"  Rome,  1896.  See 
also  Desmoulins,  "A  quoi  tient  la  sup6riorit6  des  Anglo-Saxons,"  1897. 


304  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  161 

the  child  who  has  lied  or  maltreated  a  companion?  Such  a 
child  will  acquire,  month  by  month  and  year  by  year,  an  instinct 
opposed  to  falsehood,  theft,  and  cruelty,  a  physiological  aver- 
sion, thanks  to  which  crime  will  be  for  him  no  longer  possible. 
Then  the  problem  of  education  will  be  solved." 

Criminal  anthropology  has  taught  us  that,  given  the  tempo- 
rary criminality  common  to  children,  we  need  not  be  dismayed 
at  their  first  criminal  acts,  nor  visit  them  with  too  severe  pen- 
alties, when  these  acts  are  not  too  often  repeated,  and  are  not 
accompanied  with  the  anthropological  marks  of  criminality. 
Evolution  toward  the  good  takes  place  in  the  normal  human 
being  gradually,  like  the  transformation  of  the  lower  forms  in 
the  foetus.  Only  a  bad  education,  by  stimulating  the  perverse 
instincts  which  are  merely  effervescent  in  childhood,  can  make 
them  become  habitual  instead  of  being  transformed.  Spencer 
shows  us  in  his  admirable  book  upon  Education  how  much  evil 
too  strict  an  education  can  do,  by  irritating  the  child  without 
convincing  him  that  he  has  done  wrong,  and  by  not  fitting  itself 
to  his  natural  instincts;  an  education,  in  short,  that  tries  to  get 
more  than  the  child  can  give,  forgetting  the  immense  influence 
of  sympathy,  on  account  of  which  even  adults  regret  having 
injured  a  sympathetic  person  more  than  one  unsympathetic. 

We  ought,  then,  to  make  punishments  milder  and  at  the  same 
time  render  them  more  effective  by  always  adapting  them  to 
the  character.  Thus  when  a  child  has  injured  a  valuable 
object,  let  us  buy  another  at  the  expense  of  some  delicacy  that 
he  would  have  had,  thus  showing  him  the  consequences  of  his 
fault.  When  he  does  not  obey  our  orders  let  us  show  him  less 
sympathy,  but  not  give  way  to  anger,  which,  however  brief  it 
may  be,  is  always  injurious  to  the  father  as  well  as  the  child  — 
to  the  father,  because  it  is  at  bottom  but  a  rehc  of  savage  ven- 
geance, and  to  the  child,  because  it  produces  in  him  a  dangerous 
reaction.  The  child  ought  to  be  persuaded  without  being  con- 
strained by  violence.  We  should  prevent,  rather  than  encour- 
age, as  many  do,  the  association  of  ideas  between  bad  actions 
and  punishment,  on  account  of  which,  when  the  surveillance  of 
parent  or  teacher  is  removed,  children  no  longer  fear  to  do  wrong. 
This  is  why  the  children  of  persons  who  have  been  too  strict. 


§  162]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  305 

upon  arriving  at  adult  years,  often  commit  more  faults,  and 
even  crimes,  than  the  children  of  parents  who  were  not  so  strict. 

§  162.  Application  of  Psychology  to  Reformatories 

These  reasons  have  double  force  when  it  is  a  question  of  a 
juvenile  delinquent,  naturally  inclined  to  anger  and  revenge, 
and  likely  to  take  punishment  in  bad  part.  Cruel  by  instinct, 
he  becomes  still  more  so  in  the  reform  school  from  the  example 
of  others,  from  the  glory  attaching  to  misdeeds,  and  from  the 
too  often  justifiable  reaction  against  punishments  that  are  too 
severe  for  the  gravity  of  the  offence  and  the  age  of  the  offender. 
What  sympathy  can  the  head  of  such  an  institution  inspire  in 
the  child,  to  whom  he  has  only  a  fleeting  relation  and  then  only 
to  inflict  punishment?  How  can  he  keep  watch  of  him  day  by 
day,  in  such  a  way  as  to  change  his  habits,  when  it  is  a  question 
of  hundreds  whom  he  can  hardly  oversee.'*  How,  finally,  can  he 
avoid  the  greater  danger  of  new  opportunities  for  evil-doing, 
when  the  mingling  of  so  many  perverse  beings,  proud  of  their 
own  perversity,  would  be  corrupting  even  for  an  honest  person, 
and  when  the  juvenile  criminal  encounters  this  at  an  age  when 
unhealthy  ideas  spring  up  and  grow  with  most  vigor?  ^ 

New  subdivisions  in  the  reformatories  are  too  much  to  expect. 
It  is  much  if  the  inmates  are  separated  according  to  age  and 
cause  of  imprisonment.  How  shall  masturbators,  choleric  per- 
sons, sexual  psychopathies,  thieves,  and  tormentors  of  animals 
be  separated?  It  is  important,  however,  to  improve  these  insti- 
tutions by  a  special  selection.  It  is  necessary  not  only  to  sep- 
arate the  youths  from  the  incorrigible  adults,  but  to  attempt  to 
group  them  according  to  age,  degree  of  depravity,  etc.,  for, 
grouped  together,  their  vices  will  propagate  themselves,  instead 
of  being  corrected.  The  evil  tendencies  must  be  combatted  by 
hypnotic  suggestion,  which  is  especially  effective  at  this  age 
and  when  periodically  renewed  forms  a  kind  of  habitual  inclin- 
ation toward  the  good.  This  is  a  proceeding  analogous  to  that 
of  which  Spencer  speaks  in  his  "Education." 

1  We  shall  see  in  the  following  chapter  how  Brockway,  under  the 
inspiration  of  these  pages,  created  the  reformatory  at  Ehnira,  thus  givmg 
to  my  work  the  greatest  reward  that  a  thinker  can  hope  for. 


306  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§162 

"Some  carp,  having  been  put  into  an  aquarium  with  smaller 
fish,  were  in  the  habit  of  eating  them;  being  separated  from 
the  others  by  a  glass  partition,  they  at  first  threw  themselves 
against  it  in  their  endeavor  to  seize  their  prey,  but  seeing  the 
uselessness  of  their  efforts  they  ceased  their  attempts,  and 
when  the  glass  was  raised  they  lived  with  the  smaller  fish  with- 
out trying  to  eat  them.  Habit  made  them  harmless,  if  not 
innocent.  It  is  thus  that  a  dog,  trained  by  habit  and  education, 
ends  by  not  stealing." 

It  is  by  this  method  that  bom  criminals  ought  to  be  treated, 
avoiding  harsh  punishments  which  can  only  irritate  them. 

The  measure  most  necessary,  preventive  isolation  of  the 
criminal,  is  considerably  facilitated  by  new  advances  in  an- 
thropology; for  the  characteristics  of  physiognomy  and  cranium, 
taken  together  with  biological  characteristics  and  the  excess  of 
tendencies  to  evil-doing,  assist  powerfully  in  distinguishing  the 
dominant  and  always  increasing  criminality  of  the  born  criminal 
from  that  which  is  found  temporarily  in  the  case  of  all  chil- 
dren.^ It  appeared  from  recent  studies  made  in  Italy  upon  this 
subject,^  that  of  333  pupils  examined,  13%  showed  serious  cran- 
ial anomalies.  Now  of  these  abnormal  individuals  44%  were 
insubordinate,  while  of  the  pupils  of  normal  type  only  24%  were 
insubordinate.  Of  the  former,  23%  were  dull,  and  27%  inert; 
of  the  latter,  11%  were  dull,  and  10%  inert.  Among  the  abnor- 
mal there  were  10%  incapable  of  any  progress,  and  only  2% 
among  those  of  normal  type.  Of  the  43  with  cranial  abnormal- 
ities, 8  complained  of  headache,  or  of  a  feeling  of  heat  in  the 
head,  and  of  incapacity  for  continuous  work;  12  were  impulsive, 
irascible,  and  unable  to  restrain  themselves,  while  6,  true  crim- 
inals bom,  lacked  moral  sense  and  committed  without  com- 
punction the  most  serious  offences.^  The  isolation  of  the  born 
criminal,  in  these  cases,  prevents  his  perfecting  himseK  in  evil; 

»  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  chap.  2. 

*  Vitali,  "Studi  Antropologici  in  Servizio  alia  Pedagogia,"  1896. 

8  Joly  ("Le  Combat  contre  le  Crime,"  etc.,  p.  116)  did  not  find  any 
bom  criminals  in  the  schools  that  he  examined.  "We  have  the  weak 
and  abnormal,"  the  schoolmasters  answered  him,  "but  they  are  gener- 
ally mild  and  inoffensive."  But  somewhat  later  Joly  is  obliged  to  admit 
that  there  were  those  who  had  committed  homicide,  and  that  they  were 
not  to  be  found  in  the  schools  because  not  tolerated  there.  Now  where 
were  they  before  they  were  expelled? 


§  163]        THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  307 

and,  what  is  more  important,  prevents  fruit,  congenitally  rotten, 
from  tainting  hundreds  that  are  sound. 

Does  this  idea,  which  I  think  is  new  as  applied  to  the  preven- 
tion of  crime,  amount  to  nothing  in  its  practical  appUcation? 
In  England,  when  a  child  plays  truant  from  school  or  is  refrac- 
tory when  he  attends,  he  is  confined,  after  a  regular  trial,  in  a 
truants'  school.  Here  they  endeavor  to  give  him  immediately, 
from  head  to  foot,  the  sensation  of  a  new  life.  To  this  end  his 
hair  is  cut,  he  is  bathed,  disinfected,  and  clothed  in  suitable 
garments.  He  is  then  placed  in  his  own  division  and  obliged  to 
keep  silence  all  the  week,  except  on  Sunday.  He  has  to  do  his 
part  in  the  work  of  the  establishment,  as  well  in  tailoring  and 
shoemaking,  which  alternate  with  gymnastics  and  mihtary  exer- 
cises. The  little  recluses  know  that  it  depends  upon  themselves 
alone  whether  they  regain  their  Uberty  in  a  longer  or  shorter 
period.  The  first  time,  they  stay  generally  only  8  weeks  or  less, 
at  the  expiration  of  which  they  are  released  with  the  admonition 
to  attend  the  ordinary  schools.  Of  those  set  at  hberty  25%  or 
30%  offend  again,  and  are  confined  in  the  school  for  4  months, 
and  if  they  commit  a  third  offence,  for  6  months.  If,  after  thisj 
they  are  found  to  require  more  prolonged  moral  treatment,  they 
are  sent  to  the  reform  school. 

The  industrial  schools  receive  children  who  have  not  been 
convicted,  but  who,  because  of  their  environment,  are  in  danger. 
The  reform  schools  receive  the  young  delinquents  convicted  by 
the  magistrates,  county  court,  or  court  of  assizes.  They  are 
confined,  for  a  term  not  to  exceed  5  years,  in  authorized  and 
inspected  schools.  In  short,  the  industrial  schools  are  pre- 
ventive establishments,  while  the  reform  schools,  as  their  name 
indicates,  are  repressive  and  at  the  same  time  educational 
institutions,  in  which  delinquent  children  are  carefully  separated 
from  those  simply  vicious,  and  where  the  dangers  of  promiscuity 
are  avoided  by  a  careful  division  into  small  groups. 

§  163.  Associations  among  Children 

For  the  same  reason  it  is  necessary  to  watch  all  the  scholastic 
institutions  in  order  to  prevent  turning  them  into  criminal 


308  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  163 

centers.  This  is  the  way  to  check  the  development  of  criminal 
tendencies,  which  exist  already  in  germ.  The  associations  of 
street-boys  in  the  great  cities  appear  inoffensive,  but  they  are, 
on  the  contrary,  greatly  to  be  dreaded.  It  is  these  that  we  should 
try  to  suppress  with  the  greatest  energy.  "The  children  who  do 
the  mischief,"  said  a  school  teacher  to  Joly,  "are  never  alone, 
and  when  they  get  together  it  is  never  for  any  good."  ^ 

We  have  already  seen  in  the  "Homme  Criminel"  and  in 
Part  I  of  this  work,  how  men,  when  they  form  associations, 
lose  in  honesty,  even  when  they  are  senators,  deputies,  or  aca- 
demicians. It  is  natural,  then,  that  this  law  should  manifest 
itseK  in  the  time  of  childhood,  when  dishonesty  is  a  physiolog- 
ical characteristic.  It  is  easy  to  understand  how  much  more 
serious  the  danger  from  these  associations  is  when  the  children 
are  orphans,  or  belong  to  families  that  are  immoral  or  incapable 
of  training  them. 

"We  can  say,"  says  Spagliardi,^  "that  the  majority  of  young 
tramps  and  vagrants  do  not  become  such  from  perversity  or 
poverty,  but  from  defective  education  and  because  they  were 
drawn  away  by  evil  associations.  How  many  times  have  we 
not  heard  respectable  families  say  something  of  this  kind:  *As 
long  as  our  son  remained  in  the  country  he  was  an  obedient 
young  man  and  full  of  promise;  but  since  we  have  been  estab- 
lished in  Milan  he  has  lost  his  respect  and  affection  for  his 
parents,  and  has  robbed  the  house  several  times.'  A  boy 
8  years  old,  of  a  good  and  respectable  family,  disappeared  from 
the  house  of  his  parents  for  several  days  and  was  able  to  evade 
the  most  diligent  search.  When  he  was  found  he  was  never 
willing  to  tell  where  he  had  hidden.  To  what  shall  we  ascribe 
these  strange  changes  taking  place  in  children  of  respectable 
families?  Where  do  they  find  the  means  of  living  lives  inde- 
pendent of  their  families  and  emancipated  from  them,  if  not 
with  bands  of  vagrants? 

"But  if  the  children  who  make  an  ideal  of  this  kind  of  life, 
found,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  first  step  they  took  in  that 

1  Joly,  "Le  Combat  contre  le  Crime,"  etc.,  p.  127.  "When  some  of 
the  children  go  wrong,"  said  another  schoolmaster  to  him,  "it  is  almost 
always  due  to  friendships  that  become  too  intimate.  Two  children,  pre- 
viously good,  make  doubtful  disclosures  to  each  other  and  mutually  cor- 
rupt one  another.  It  is  still  worse  where  the  children  are  naturally  bad. 
They  have  a  tendency  to  form  bands  which  have  all  the  criminal  charac- 
teristics, and  employ  a  sort  of  argot  among  themselves."     (Ibid.) 

»  "The  Monist,"  Chicago,  1895. 


§  164]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  309 

direction  brought  them  hunger,  isolation,  and  strict  surveil- 
lance, would  it  not  be  better  for  the  family,  and  could  not  the 
family  by  this  means  make  its  authority  effective?  There  are 
already  strict  ordinances  for  public  hygiene,  for  poUcing  the 
streets,  for  preventing  contagion  .  .  .  ;  why  should  there  not 
be  one  limiting  these  associations,  which  are  a  hidden  menace 
to  society?  While  they  are  children,  a  police  oflBcer  would  be 
sufficient  to  reduce  them  to  subjection.  Let  them  alone,  and 
some  day  they  will  be  resisting  charges  of  cavalry." 

§  164.  Reform  Schools 

Some  years  ago  the  reform  schools  admitted  7688  children: 
those  in  Italy,  3770,  in  Belgium  1473,  in  Holland  1615,  and 
in  America  2400,  all  with  the  ostensible  purpose  of  preservation 
and  amendment.  But  we  have  shown  how  far  these  institutions 
are  from  being  able  to  realize  good  results  under  the  actual  con- 
ditions of  their  organization,  which  brings  all  these  perverse 
natures  into  contact  with  each  other.  This  promiscuity  be- 
comes still  more  dangerous  when  these  young  prisoners  come 
to  be  more  than  a  hundred  in  number.  They  cease  then  to  be 
individuals  and  become  a  crowd,  which  cannot  be  watched  and 
developed  in  detail,  even  by  the  most  able  director,  so  that  the 
most  stringent  rules  end  in  failure.  I  speak  not  theoretically 
but  after  a  detailed  inquiry  into  numbers  of  these  institutions, 
while  remaining  an  admirer  of  the  rare  philanthropists  who  are 
at  the  head  of  some  of  them. 

If  sometimes  in  these  reform  schools  I  have  noticed  young 
people  who  were  industrious,  trained,  and  without  bigotry,  I 
cannot  say  the  same  of  many  others,  in  which,  under  the  mask 
of  a  Jesuitical  mildness,  vice  flourished  worse  than  ever.  I  have 
even  observed  in  one  of  the  better  establishments  in  Milan  some 
of  these  juvenile  delinquents  who,  when  questioned  as  to  the 
cause  of  their  confinement,  lied  brazenly,  even  in  the  presence 
of  the  director,  a  fact  which  proves  that  they  had  neither  re- 
pented nor  had  any  realization  of  their  offences.  To  assure 
myself  with  regard  to  this  I  have  observed  several  of  these 
delinquents  after  their  hberation.  I  have  questioned  them, 
and  their  answers  and  autobiographies  proved  to  me  how  full 
even  the  better  establishments  are  of  the  most  infamous  vices. 


310  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  164 

such  as  pederasty,  theft,  and  the  Camorra,  just  as  in  the  case 
of  the  prisons.  So  bad  indeed  was  it  that  it  even  disgusted  my 
informants,  though  they  made  no  pretensions  to  virtue,  and 
soon  fell  again  into  crime.^ 

In  some  of  these  estabhshments,  at  G.  and  M.  for  example, 
there  prevails  unpunished  the  custom  of  compelling  the  new 
arrivals  to  masturbate  all  the  adults  that  desire  it.  At  Ascoli 
the  inmates  set  fire  to  the  estabhshment  with  petroleum.  At 
Ambrogiana  three  of  them  stabbed  one  of  the  guards  to  death, 
with  no  other  motive  than  the  pleasure  of  doing  evil.  The  ruses 
that  they  employ  are  unbelievable.  One  of  them,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  his  occupation  as  carpenter,  hollowed  out  a  piece 
of  wood,  in  which  he  concealed  cigars,  sausage,  etc.,  to  sell  to 
his  companions.  Another  hid  a  dagger  in  his  straw  mattress. 
A  third  concealed  a  gold  piece  under  his  enrollment  number,  so 
that  he  always  had  it  with  him  when  he  changed  his  cell,  a 
trick  that  never  would  have  been  discovered  without  his  own 
confession.  Of  the  youths  whom  we  interrogated  at  the  "Gen- 
erala,"  8%  manifested  no  desire  to  amend,  although  they  had 
committed  the  most  serious  crimes.  "If  young  people  of  our 
age,"  they  said,  "have  money  for  amusements,  why  have  not 
we  the  right  to  get  some  for  ourselves  by  steaUng  either  from 
them  or  from  others."  Others  added,  "Whatever  crime  we 
may  commit  will  not  equal  what  we  have  endured  in  the  re- 
formatory." 3%  resolutely  denied  their  offences;  11%  declared 
that  they  repented,  but  did  so  with  an  air  of  indifference  which 
proved  their  insincerity;  5%  went  so  far  as  to  insult  their  par- 
ents. We  have  seen  ^  that  in  these  institutions  tattooing  is 
very  prevalent,  40%  of  the  inmates  being  marked  in  this  way. 
This  is  a  very  grave  sign;  but  there  is  another  worse  still,  if 
possible:  this  is  the  use  of  a  special  argot. 

If,  however,  by  the  most  assiduous  pains  the  young  prisoners 
are  really  improved,  this  improvement  disappears  when  they 
go  back  among  adults.  More  than  this,  there  is  but  one  rule 
not  only  for  all  parts  of  the  country  but  for  all  ages,  whereas 

1  For  detailed  proof  see  the  autobiographies  and  dialogues  at  the  end 
of  the  2d  edition  of  the  "Homme  Criminel,"  Turin,  1878. 

2  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  p.  338. 


§  164]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  311 

what  is  needed  is  a  tutor  and  a  matron  for  the  children,  and 
for  the  adults  a  real  martinet.  Joly  also  tells  of  reform  schools 
in  France  that  seem  at  first  glance  to  be  like  paradise,  but  which, 
in  reality,  are  so  many  hells.  The  discipline  is  very  severe  but  at 
the  same  time  inefficacious.  Thus,  for  example,  there  is  a 
punishment  room  where  the  children  have  to  march  around  in 
an  elUpse  from  morning  till  night,  covering  as  much  as  25  miles 
over  the  rough  floor  before  going  to  lie  down  on  their  plank 
beds.  In  revenge,  when  eight  or  ten  of  them  get  one  of  the 
guards  in  a  corner,  they  threaten  him  with  blows  or  with  an 
accusation  if  he  does  not  do  what  they  wish.^ 

Would  not  total  neglect  be  better  than  such  a  system  of 
education? 

There  exist,  it  is  true,  certain  rare  establishments  which  have 
at  their  head  men  remarkable  for  their  philanthropy  and  for 
their  keen  insight  as  teachers.  Such  men  are  De  Metz,  Ducci, 
Rey,  Obermayer,  Spagliardi,  and  Martelh,  who  by  their  devo- 
tion make  up  for  every  lack.  But  these  are  exceptions  upon 
which  the  state  cannot  count. 

It  is  certain  that  the  bad  results  of  these  reformatories  are 
much  less  when  the  number  of  the  inmates  is  more  hmited. 
Thus  in  France  the  public  institutions  which  almost  always 
had  as  many  as  400  pupils  showed  a  recidivism  over  19%, 
while  the  private  institutions,  having  an  average  of  150  pupils, 
showed  only  11%  to  12%;  and  in  Switzerland  and  in  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Baden,  where  there  are  never  more  than  50  pupils, 
recidivism  falls  to  4%  and  2,5%;  while  in  England  it  is  4%  for 
the  boys  and  1%  for  the  girls. 

However  these  figures  do  not  satisfy  me  completely.  In  the 
United  States  they  count  upon  33%  of  recidivism  in  the  nu- 
merous reformatories.  Tocqueville,  after  praising  them  as  the 
ideal  of  penal  reform,  declares  that  of  519  children  released, 
300  relapse  into  crime,  including  nearly  all  those  addicted  to 
theft  and  drink,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  girls.  Of  85  girls 
released  only  11  had  excellent  conduct  and  37  good.  Out  of 
427  boys,  41  were  excellent  and  85  good.  Everyone  will  recall 
the  pompous  eulogies  of  the  colony  of  Mettray,  which,  accord- 
»  "Le  Combat  contre  le  Crime,"  p.  145. 


312  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  164 

ing  to  the  statistics  of  some  years  ago,  was  able  to  reduce  recid- 
ivism from  75%,  which  had  been  the  figure,  to  3.8%  (Despine). 
Now,  a  few  years  afterward  Du  Camp  informed  us  that  recid- 
ivism had  risen  again  to  33.3%,  a  fact  which  he  explained  by 
the  aversion  of  the  Parisians  to  the  country,  which  is  generally 
the  delight  of  the  young.  Yet  Mettray  has  the  ideal  system 
for  a  reform  school,  for  the  children  are  divided  into  groups  or 
famihes  of  16  or  17,  each  hving  in  a  cottage  with  its  own  head 
and  assistant  head.  How  shall  we  beheve  the  miracles  told  of 
the  cellular  reform  school  of  la  Roquette,  which  is  said  to  have 
reduced  recidivism  from  15%  to  9%,^  when  we  see  that  a  few 
years  afterward  a  government  commission  found  it  necessary 
to  suppress  it?  And  the  French  statisticians,  while  for  the 
period  1866-68  they  estimated  the  recidivists  at  17%  in  the 
ease  of  public  reform  schools  and  at  11%  in  the  case  of  private 
ones,  confessed  that  half  of  those  released  had  a  bad  reputation.^ 

Even  if  these  statistics  were  exact,  they  would  prove  abso- 
lutely nothing,  because  the  private  institutions  are  apt  to  get 
rid  of  their  worst  subjects  by  transferring  the  insubordinate 
and  idle  to  the  government  reformatories;  and  when  once  they 
have  got  rid  of  these,  those  that  are  left  make  a  relatively  good 
showing.  We  know,  moreover,  that  however  useful  the  reform- 
atories might  be  for  effecting  a  moral  cure,  yet  the  enormous 
expense  that  they  entail  and  their  limited  number,  considering 
the  need,  must  always  make  them  insufficient. 

We  may  add  that  the  possibihty  of  putting  children  into  an 
institution  when  they  become  undisciplined,  and  this  without 
expense,  makes  many  parents  less  active  in  watching  over  them, 
and  at  times  even  interested  in  having  them  misbehave.  I 
have  observed  at  the  "Generala"  five  youths  of  well-known 
families,  two  of  whom  had  incomes  of  more  than  100,000  francs, 
whom  greedy  guardians  or  guilty  parents  had  had  confined  under 
more  or  less  grave  pretexts,  keeping  them  there  at  a  franc  a 
day  and  refusing  them  even  the  money  necessary  to  buy  a 
musical  instrument  or  a  book  with  which  to  make  their  shameful 
imprisonment  a  little  more  bearable. 

1  Biffi,  "Sui  Riformatori  dei  Giovani,"  1870. 
3  Bertrand,  "Essai  sur  I'lntemperance,"  1875. 


§  164]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  313 

"I  must  remark,"  says  the  former  chief  of  police,  Locatelli, 
"that  the  legislative  measures  wdth  reference  to  refractory- 
children  are  being  wrongly  interpreted  by  our  people.  While 
the  legislators  passed  them  with  the  intention  of  more  effectually 
preventing  crime,  the  people,  following  a  system  of  interpretation 
taught  by  self-interest,  persist  in  considering  them  exclusively 
philanthropic;  so  that  fathers  of  large  families  consider  them- 
selves authorized  by  the  law  to  have  those  children  who  cause 
them  most  trouble  and  expense  confined  and  educated  at  the 
expense  of  the  state.  As  soon  as  the  persons  interested  perceived 
that  their  applications  were  received  with  circumspection,  the 
attempts  were  made  more  craftily.  Demands  for  the  commit- 
ment of  the  children  were  supported  by  ample  testimony,  often 
from  very  high  sources,  proving  the  incorrigibility  of  the  minor 
in  question.  What  is  still  more  deplorable,  parents  often  even 
went  so  far  as  to  force  the  child  into  idleness  and  vagrancy  by 
all  sorts  of  artifices,  as  by  cutting  down  his  food,  for  example, 
or  disturbing  his  sleep,  in  such  a  way,  however,  that  the  author- 
ities could  get  no  proofs." 

For  those  who  believe  that  these  reform  schools  are  a  benefit 
to  deserted  children  and  orphans,  I  would  say  that  these  schools 
have  hardly  8%  to  13%  of  orphans,  and  8%  to  12%  of  step- 
children. They  can  be  useful  only  in  those  rare  instances  wheii 
they  really  teach  the  young  prisoner  a  trade.  We  may  add  that 
in  no  reform  school,  or  in  hardly  any,  is  the  system  of  isolation 
at  night  or  a  rigid  rule  of  silence  applied  —  regulations  which 
would  hardly  be  applicable  in  institutions  half  didactic,  half 
industrial,  and  which  would  be  continually  evaded  by  the 
tricks  of  the  prisoners. 

If  any  one  is  greatly  concerned  at  the  thought  of  the  harm 
which  some  of  these  children  would  receive  if  left  in  their 
demorahzing  homes,  let  him  think  of  the  effect  upon  honest  but 
weak  young  people  who  are  brought  into  contact  with  the 
vicious  in  the  reform  school.  Those  among  them  who  come 
from  the  country,  where  they  could  not  learn  evil  or  form  bad 
associations  because  of  lack  of  opportunity,  find  in  the  reform- 
atory evil  associations  all  prepared  for  them.  I  would  per- 
mit reform  schools,  then,  only  in  exceptional  cases  and  for  a 
small  number  of  individuals,  these  to  be  classified  according  to 
age,  aptitude,  and  morahty.  They  should  be  separated  at 
night,  but  should  enjoy  relative  Uberty  with  no  mark  of  infamy. 


314  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  165 

I  would  have  these  schools  admit  only  those  who  for  their 
poverty  could  not  be  received  in  military  and  naval  schools. 
As  for  the  rich  who  would  like  to  have  their  children  confined 
in  such  a  place,  they  ought  to  pay  a  heavy  tax,  proportioned  to 
their  income. 

§  165.  Educational  Methods 

If  we  sometimes  meet  with  success  in  our  reform  schools, 
notwithstanding  their  defective  organization,  it  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  there  the  young  man  becomes  used  to  regular  and 
continuous  work,  something  that  the  born  criminal  commonly 
refuses.  This  latter  fact  makes  it  easier  to  recognize  such 
criminals  and  separate  them  from  the  others,  and  thus  it  is 
made  easier  to  develop  the  physiological  honesty  of  habit  in 
the  youth  whose  defect  is  only  the  physiological  sub-criminality 
of  the  child. 

Don  Bosco^  has  traced  for  us  an  excellent  system  for  the 
education  of  young  delinquents  who  are  capable  of  reformation. 

"The  greater  part,"  he  says,  "have  an  ordinary  tempera- 
ment and  character,  but  they  are  inconstant  and  inclined 
to  indifference.  They  should  be  advised  and  warned  briefly 
but  frequently,  and  encouraged  to  work  by  small  rewards  and 
a  great  deal  of  confidence,  though  without  any  relaxation  of 
surveillance.  Effort  and  care  must  be  especially  directed  toward 
the  class  of  unruly  pupils,  of  whom  there  is  about  one  in  fifteen. 
But  the  vice  most  to  be  dreaded  is  lubricity.  Any  one  of  the 
inmates  who  persists  in  this  must  be  expelled.  The  young 
prisoners  must  not  be  allowed  to  keep  any  money  or  article 
of  value;  in  this  way  we  may  prevent  theft  and  the  bargaining 
to  which  the  children  are  inclined,  being  natural  traders.  .  .  . 
The  repressive  system  is  plainly  capable  of  keeping  down  dis- 
order, but  it  is  powerless  to  make  the  soul  better;  for  although 
children  easily  forget  punishments  inflicted  by  their  parents, 
they  always  remember  those  of  their  teachers.  Repression 
may  be  useful  in  the  army  and,  in  general,  with  persons  who 
are  mature  and  prudent;  but  what  is  needed  with  children 
is  the  preventive  system.  This  system,  based  entirely  upon 
reason,  religion,  and  love,  excludes  any  violent  punishment. 
To  understand  the  advantages  of  this  system  it  is  necessary 

^  Bonetti,  "Cinque  Lustri  di  Storia  dell'  Oratorio  Salesiano,"  Turin, 
1892. 


§  167]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  315 

to  remember  the  instability  of  the  child,  which  makes  him  for- 
get disciplinary  rules  and  the  punishments  that  he  incurs,  often 
transgressing  a  rule  and  making  himself  liable  to  a  punishment 
of  which,  at  the  moment  of  acting,  he  never  thought  at  all. 
He  would  certainly  have  acted  quite  differently  if  a  friendly 
voice  had  warned  him.  It  is  necessary  to  see  that  the  pupils 
are  never  alone,  and  to  give  them  ample  opportunity  to  run, 
jump,  and  shout  as  much  as  they  like.  Gymnastics,  vocal  and 
instrumental  music,  declamation,  amateur  theatricals,  walks,  — 
all  these  are  effective  means  of  procuring  good  discipline,  at  the 
same  time  being  useful  for  morals  and  health.  The  subjects  for 
presentation  in  the  improvised  theater  must  be  carefully  chosen 
and  only  respectable  characters  depicted." 

§  1 66.  Moral  Training  through  Adoption 

It  is,  above  all,  the  example  of  the  teachers  that  has  influence; 
for  we  are  led  more  by  example  than  by  persuasion.  Every 
effort  must  be  made  to  find  the  exceptional  teachers  that  are 
necessary;  and  when  these  are  wanting,  when  a  mixing  of  the 
different  classes  cannot  be  avoided,  because  of  crowding  and 
because  the  frauds  of  parents  cannot  be  prevented,  when  there 
is  not  a  cubicle  for  each  inmate,  and  when  good  workshops 
are  lacking,  as  is  unhappily  the  case  in  Italy,  then  it  is  prefer- 
able to  entrust  the  children  to  moral  and  energetic  families  at 
a  distance  from  the  corrupting  influences  of  the  city.  The 
deserted  child  little  by  little  becomes  fond  of  the  family  that 
adopts  him,  brings  them  his  first  earnings,  generally  never 
leaves  the  home  that  has  received  him,  and  finds  there  a  stable 
moral  environment,  which  directs  him  to  rectitude.^  Thus  in 
France,  of  11,250  children  sent  to  families  in  the  country,  only 
147  finally  had  to  be  sent  to  the  reform  school. 

§  167.  American  Reforms— Placing  in  the  Country 
Here  philanthropy  must  assume  new  forms,  abandoning  the 
methods  of  the  monastery  and  the  barracks,  as  well  as  those 
of  abstract  morals,  which  have  no  hold  on  a  being  inclined  to 
crime.  What  is  necessary  is  to  inspire  the  person  with  a  desire 
for  property,  a  love  of  work,  and  a  feeling  for  the  beautiful. 
1  Joly,  "Le  Combat  contre  le  Crime." 


316  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  167 

This  adoption  must  be  supplemented  by  emigration  to  distant 
lands  or  migration  to  the  country.  This  is  the  only  effective 
remedy,  as  Barnardo,  Bosco,  and  Brace  have  proved.  In  1853 
professors,  judges,  clergymen,  and  rabbis  formed  a  society  to 
help  vagrant  children,^  and  established  philanthropic  work- 
shops, where  they  might  be  received.  But  the  competition  of 
the  regular  shops  prevented  the  success  of  this  enterprise,  and 
the  boys  themselves,  for  their  part,  objected  to  being  objects 
of  charity  and  preferred  their  liberty.  The  plan  of  giving  them 
lodging  at  a  low  price  was  then  thought  of.  Beds  were  fur- 
nished at  6  cents,  and  a  bath  and  dinner  at  4  cents. 

But  there  was  as  yet  no  way  of  making  the  lodgers  work;  as 
for  asking  them  directly  to  do  so,  that  would  have  been  to 
empty  the  establishment  at  once.  In  order  to  awake  neither  re- 
pugnance nor  suspicion,  the  director  entered  one  morning  and 
announced  that  some  one  wanted  an  employee  at  $12  a  month. 
Twenty  voices  were  raised  to  offer  themselves.  "Very  well," 
said  the  director,  "but  a  good  handwriting  is  necessary."  Gen- 
eral silence!  "Well,  then,  if  no  one  knows  how  to  write,  we  will 
teach  it  to  you  in  the  evenings."  Thus  it  was  that  the  night 
schools  were  started.  In  1869  and  1870  8835  boys  made  use 
of  the  lodging-house.  In  10  years  the  total  had  reached  91,326, 
of  whom  7788  had  become  good  workers.  The  poor  women 
objected  to  mingling  with  the  well-to-do  in  the  industrial 
schools,  and  accordingly  schools  have  been  created  expressly 
for  them,  and  food  and  clothes  are  promised  those  who  con- 
duct themselves  well.  Since  then  the  number  of  girls  arrested 
for  vagrancy  has  diminished,  and  from  3172  in  1861  fell  to  339 
in  1871.  Only  5  out  of  2000  pupils  went  to  the  bad.  The 
number  of  female  thieves  fell  from  944  to  572;  and  there  were 
only  212  girls  under  age  arrested  in  place  of  405,  the  former 
number.  Still  more  was  done  for  the  boys.  Primary  schools 
of  carpentry  were  opened,  in  which  hot  meals  were  served. 
Entertainments  were  organized  with  admission  costing  4  or  5 

*  Brace,  "Reports  upon  the  Questions  of  the  Program  of  the  Inter- 
national Penitentiary  Congress  at  Stockhobn,  .  .  .  According  to  what 
principles  institutions  for  vagrant,  mendicant,  and  deserted  children 
should  be  organized,"  1877;  Brace,  "Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York," 
1875. 


§  167]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  317 

cents.  At  first  the  children  broke  the  windows  and  shouted 
"We  don't  want  any  schools!"  But  the  very  fact  that  they 
were  under  no  compulsion  to  go  overcame  the  most  unwiUing; 
and  the  objective  methods  of  Froebel  ended  by  winning  them 
over  completely. 

The  institution  supplemented  this  work  by  placing  children 
on  distant  farms,  where  their  work  is  best  utiUzed,  and,  in  con- 
sequence, preferred,  where  they  are  free  from  the  bad  influences 
of  the  large  and  small  cities,  and  where  the  worker,  being  in 
direct  contact  with  his  employer,  is  better  watched  than  he 
would  be  if  he  were  living  with  his  own  family. 

The  continual  contact  with  a  good  housekeeper  makes  good 
domestic  servants  out  of  the  girls,  and  the  boys  learn  from  their 
employer  to  be  good  farmers.  Living  in  an  atmosphere  of 
kindness,  sympathy,  and  industry,  stimulated  at  the  same  time 
by  a  new  self-respect  and  the  hope  of  a  better  position,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  having  no  bad  companions  nor  any  tempta- 
tion to  steal,  they  abandon  with  their  rags  many  of  their  vices 
and  find  in  the  various  activities  of  farm  life  an  outlet  for  their 
energy.  When  they  are  too  delicate,  the  society  pays  for  their 
support  until  they  gain  strength  enough  to  work;  but  if  they 
finally  prove  not  to  be  strong  enough,  the  society  takes  them 
back  again. 

In  this  way  the  society  in  less  than  23  years  has  placed  more 
than  35,000  children  who  were  deserted  and  without  refuge,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  large  number  received  into  the  industrial 
schools  (21  day  schools  and  14  night  schools)  and  in  the  lodg- 
ing-houses (more  than  23,000  in  1875).  After  the  children  have 
contracted  habits  of  order  and  sobriety  in  the  night  schools  and 
Sunday  schools,  they  are  placed  in  the  country,  and  the  whole 
work  has  not  cost  more  than  $2,000,000. 

Many  of  these  children  are  adopted  by  their  employers; 
others  have  started  new  farms  by  their  work,  or  have  entered 
some  profession.  Many  of  the  girls  have  become  excellent 
mothers  of  famiUes.  Some  of  these  young  people  change  their 
situations,  as  all  employees  do;  but  few  return  to  New  York, 
and  very  few  indeed,  not  more  than  6  in  15,000,  get  into  the 
courts.     In  New  York,  in  fact,  in  the  ten  years  following  the 


318  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  168 

establishment  of  this  work  there  was  a  decrease  in  the  num- 
ber of 

Vagrants       from  3829  to  994 
Thieves  "     1948  "  245 

Pickpockets     "       465  "  313 

This  is,  according  to  Brace,  the  only  institution  really  useful 
for  vagrant  children,  who,  crowded  together,  could  only  cor- 
rupt each  other,  while  by  this  means  we  use  the  boy  to  improve 
the  land,  and  the  land  to  improve  the  boy.  This  is  surely  a 
good  cure  for  criminaUty,  and  how  effective  it  would  be  in 
certain  parts  of  Italy! 

There  remain  the  children  who  are  sickly  and  otherwise  in- 
capable of  farm  work.  For  these  separate  beds  have  to  be 
kept  in  the  schools  themselves,  as  is  done  in  the  "ragged 
schools"  in  England. 

§  i68.  Day  Reformatories  for  Children 

When  it  is  not  possible  to  bring  about  the  creation  of  benevo- 
lent institutions  like  that  described  above,  they  may  be  replaced 
by  the  institution  advocated  by  Spagliardi,  a  reform  school  for 
day  pupils,  which  is  much  easier  to  establish.  This  is  a  com- 
pulsory day  school  for  refractory  children  between  the  ages 
of  6  and  12,  whom  the  neglect  or  incapacity  of  the  parents  have 
left  unprovided  with  any  education,  and  who  cannot  receive 
one  in  the  ordinary  asylums.  With  these  are  included  the 
young  vagrants  found  habitually  together  in  the  pubUc  places, 

"Even  the  asylums  for  children,"  says  this  great  philanthro- 
pist,^ "do  not  get  all  the  poor  children,  especially  those  of  the 
very  poor,  ashamed  of  their  poverty.  But  in  any  case,  when 
the  children  come  out  of  these  institutions  at  an  age  when 
children  are  most  inclined  to  evil,  there  is  no  longer  any  special 
refuge  for  them,  and  they  become  vagabonds." 

In  this  way  we  may  counteract  the  weakening  of  parental 
authority,  which  is  one  of  the  most  serious  causes  of  crime 
(not  less  than  20%  among  the  children  of  the  well-to-do),  and 
this  without  taking  them  from  home  and  shutting  them  up 

^  "Compte  Rendu  de  la  Reunion  des  Soci^taires  de  I'CEuvre  Pieuse 
des  Maisons  de  R^fonne  de  la  Province  de  Milan,"  1872. 


§  169]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION.  ETC.  319 

at  just  the  time  when  they  most  need  air  and  movement 
and  the  care  and  relationships  of  family  life.  In  this  way  the 
child  would  be  given  a  milder  treatment  and  one  better  suited 
to  his  age,  he  would  be  spared  fatigue  disproportionate  to  his 
strength,  while  special  attention  would  be  given  to  his  physical 
development. 

This  is  not  all.  The  reform  school  costs  too  much  to  be 
applied  upon  a  large  scale,  while  these  day  reformatories,  better 
adapted  to  childhood,  could  readily  extend  their  operations  in 
direct  proportion  to  the  need.  Moreover,  even  if  the  expense 
were  greater,  which  is  not  the  case,  this  would  be  largely  com- 
pensated by  the  decrease  in  the  number  of  criminals.  We  have 
a  direct  proof  of  this  in  the  two  institutions  for  children  in 
Milan,  which,  out  of  the  700  children  received  since  1840,  had 
not  a  single  one  convicted  after  leaving  the  school,  while  half 
the  prisoners  of  the  reform  schools  have  been  inmates  of  other 
asylums.  It  would  certainly  be  sufficient,  for  the  present,  if 
the  so-called  oratories,  where  the  children  are  assembled  on 
Sundays  (in  Milan  about  3000)  for  useless  prayers  interrupted 
by  long  and  wearisome  periods  of  idleness,  should  be  secular- 
ized, conducted  on  rational  hues,  and  utiUzed  every  day  in  the 
week. 

§  169.   "  Ragged  Schools  " 

There  exists  in  London  an  institution  midway  between  the 
compulsory  asylum  of  Spaghardi  and  the  voluntary  asylum  of 
Brace.  This  is  that  of  the  "Home  for  Little  Boys."  These 
are  real  little  villages  or  colonies  given  up  to  unfortunate  chil- 
dren. The  inmates  are  divided  into  groups  like  famihes,  and 
are  taught  trades  of  shoemaker,  farmer,  valet,  mechanic,  etc.^ 
We  may  cite  also  the  "Ragged  Schools,"  where  the  children 
are  furnished  with  food  and  clothing  as  well  as  instruction,  and 
where  the  poorest,  the  deserted  children,  and  the  orphans  are 
also  given  lodging  for  the  night.  This  institution,  which  costs 
the  government  nothing,  was  founded  in  1818  with  certain 
children  picked  up  in  the  streets  of  London.  These  schools 
formed  a  noble  bond  between  the  higher  and  lower  classes,  and 
^  "Rivista  di  Disciplina  Carceria,"  1876,  p.  197. 


320  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  171 

in  them  might  be  seen  for  thirty-four  years  a  chancellor  of 
England  teaching  the  alphabet  every  Sunday.  The  children 
are  allowed  to  enter  and  leave  of  their  own  accord,  though 
many  of  them  are  brought  to  the  schools  in  the  first  instance  by 
the  police.  Numbers  of  them  support  themselves  by  their  own 
work.  Thus  there  were  in  1860  368  bootblacks  in  the  school, 
each  of  whom  brought  the  society  sixpence  daily. 

§  170.  Other  English  Meastires  for  Children 

Another  English  measure  worthy  of  being  imitated  is  that 
of  obliging  parents  who  are  found  to  be  responsible  for  a  child's 
delinquency  to  contribute  a  penny  out  of  every  shilling  of  their 
wages  toward  his  support  while  detained.  Thus  are  they 
given  an  interest  in  taking  care  of  their  children,  and  do  not 
consider  their  confinement  an  advantage.  We  have  seen  the 
miracles  accomplished  by  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Children.  Another  fine  institution  is  that  of  the 
Boys'  Brigade,^  which  enrolls  the  little  vagabonds  of  the  streets 
by  hundreds.  It  was  instituted  in  Glasgow  by  W.  A.  Smith 
in  1883,  and  in  1891  already  numbered  20,000  boys,  who  drilled, 
marched,  had  common  prayers,  and  sang  in  church. 

§  171.  Bamaxdo's  Institutions 

To  save,  if  not  the  born  criminals,  at  least  the  criminaloids, 
it  is  necessary  to  take  them  in  infancy. 

"The  attempts  to  reform  unfortunate  adults,"  writes  Bar- 
nardo,  "always  come  to  nothing  on  account  of  the  force  of 
the  criminal  habit  in  the  individual.  The  vis  inertioe  of  igno- 
rance, vice,  and  crime  is  hardly  to  be  overcome  by  the  idea  of 
reformation. 

"It  is  quite  otherwise  when  it  is  a  question  of  children.  Half 
the  difficulties  are  smoothed  away  the  moment  that  we  have  a 
plastic  material  in  our  hands.  The  influence  of  environment 
and  circumstances  in  the  formation  of  character  is  greater 
than  would  be  believed.  I  have  observed  that  a  new  and  health- 
ful environment  is  more  powerful  to  transform  and  renew  an 
individual,  than  heredity  is  to  fix  a  blemish  upon  him.    It  is 

^  "Revue  du  Christianisme  Pratique,"  1892. 


§  171]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  321 

necessary,  then,  to  cleanse  and  purify  the  atmosphere  at  once 
and  thoroughly  if  perverse  mstincts  are  to  be  obUterated." 

Barnardo  cites  triumphantly  the  careful  examination  that  he 
made  of  the  lists  of  the  children  received.  This  showed  that 
85%  of  the  children  were  descended  from  drinking  parents. 
Now  we  know  how  fatal  an  alcohoUc  heredity  is;  and  yet,  out 
of  9000  received  and  sent  to  Canada,  who  have  grown  up  and 
whose  history  is  known,  only  1%  have  gone  wrong.  It  is 
necessary,  then,  to  take  the  child  in  the  plastic  state,  if  we  want 
to  change  it.  It  is  not  a  religious  question  simply,  but  one  of 
economics.  By  spending  $100  to  take  in  and  reform  a  child, 
society  saves  thousands  of  dollars  necessary  to  defend  itself 
against  the  adult  criminal. 

Barnardo  receives  all  deserted  children,  looks  carefully  into 
their  past,  and  keeps  them  for  some  time  under  observation, 
after  which  he  chooses  a  trade  for  them  and  sends  them  to  a 
farm  or  to  Canada.  One  of  his  great  secrets  is  to  isolate  the 
children  as  much  as  possible  in  small  groups,  leaving  them 
full  liberty  to  develop  their  different  individual  aptitudes,  and 
thus  avoiding  as  much  as  possible  what  he  himself  calls  "the 
stamp  of  institutional  uniformity,"  that  curse  of  orphanages 
and  children's  homes  in  general.  For  this  it  is  necessary  not 
simply  to  avoid  mingling  children  of  different  ages,  but  even  to 
keep  them  in  different  buildings,  having  them  pass  from  one 
to  the  other  according  to  age  and  circumstances. 

This  intuition  of  the  needs  and  capacities  of  each  individual 
in  relation  to  society  Barnardo  has  carried  into  all  his  work, 
applying  it  systematically  with  profound  penetration  and  truly 
humane  feeUng.  He  receives  children  of  all  ages;  those  be- 
tween 3  and  5  go  to  the  Tiny  House,  those  from  4  to  9  to  the 
Jersey  House.  Elsewhere  he  cares  for  children  between  10 
and  15.  When  they  reach  13  years  of  age,  Barnardo  tries  to 
accustom  them  to  work,  to  harden  them  to  fatigue,  to  prepare 
them,  in  short,  for  the  life  before  them.  But  to  the  very  little 
children,  the  nurslings,  orphaned  or  abandoned,  Barnardo 
wishes  to  give,  if  not  luxury,  at  least  the  comfort  of  children 
brought  up  and  cared  for  in  their  own  homes.  Their  home  is 
situated  in  the  midst  of  gardens,  they  have  young,  strong 


322  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  171 

nurses,  rooms  full  of  light  and  sun,  white  clothes,  playthings, 
birds,  Uttle  carriages,  and  good  beds.  If  the  Doctor  cannot 
furnish  complete  comfort  to  all  the  children  he  takes  in,  he 
wishes  at  least  to  give  it  to  the  smallest.  In  his  paper,  "Night 
and  Day,"  we  see  a  photograph  of  one  of  the  dormitories. 
Colored  pictures  cover  the  walls,  in  the  background  is  a  large 
rocking-horse,  while  bird-cages  hang  by  the  beds.  The  picture 
makes  one  think  sadly  of  our  orphanages  and  day  nurseries, 
where  the  children  are  kept  Uke  cattle  in  a  stable  and  every- 
thing goes  on  as  if  in  tombs  of  the  living.  One  of  the  branch 
homes  is  in  the  country  because  a  little  three-year-old  country 
girl  received  into  the  institution  could  not  accustom  herself  to 
it  and  cried  continually.  The  case  was  brought  before  the 
council,  and  one  of  Barnardo's  collaborators.  Miss  Blanche 
Watteley,  at  once  found  the  solution:  if  the  child  could  not 
get  used  to  the  city,  they  would  establish  a  home  in  the  country. 
This  is  how  the  "Bird's  Castle"  came  into  being. 

After  having  snatched  the  children  from  misery  and  crime 
and  taught  them  to  work,  Barnardo,  to  complete  his  task,  sends 
them  to  Canada,  where  he  has  an  agent  to  place  them  on  farms 
and  keep  watch  over  them.  Contracts  are  made  with  the 
farmers  for  three  or  five  years,  with  food,  lodging,  and  $50  or 
$100  a  year  in  wages,  according  to  the  age  of  the  ward.  Thus 
they  are  rescued  from  the  pernicious  barrack  system  of  crowded 
living,  and  at  the  same  time  transplanted  into  new  surround- 
ings, where  the  fevering  stimulation  of  modem  life  cannot 
affect  them. 

It  was  with  an  equally  true  feeling  for  the  needs  and  capacities 
of  his  wards  that  Barnardo  organized  the  institution  for  girls. 
They  have  a  little  village  all  to  themselves  in  a  charming  place 
a  short  distance  from  London.  This  village  is  made  up  of 
cottages,  surrounded  by  gardens,  having  fanciful  names,  like 
"Pea-blossom,"  "Wild  Thyme,"  etc.  Each  house  holds  20 
girls,  watched  over  by  house-mothers;  for  Dr.  Barnardo  says 
quite  rightly  that  if  the  institutional  stamp  harms  a  boy,  it 
stunts  a  girl  completely,  since  her  temperament  demands  for 
its  complete  development  all  the  domestic  details  of  the  family 
life.     The  barrack  system  may  very  well  under  certain  condi- 


§  171]       THE  DANGERS  OF  INSTRUCTION,  ETC.  323 

tions  be  useful  for  boys,  provided  it  is  for  a  limited  time  only. 
But  it  would  have  no  value  whatever  for  girls,  who  would  learn 
from  it  nothing  that  the  wife  of  a  poor  man  ought  to  know,  — 
to  make  purchases,  to  quiet  a  crying  child,  to  sew.  All  these 
are  taught  by  the  cottage  system,  and  200  girls  trained  in  this 
way  are  annually  sent  to  Canada,  where  they  are  very  much 
sought  after. 

The  benefits  of  this  method  of  education  cannot  be  doubted 
when  one  considers  the  Ust  of  the  rescued  that  the  delegates 
of  the  Salvation  Army  gave  me.  The  histories  cited  by  Bar- 
nardo  also  and  backed  up  by  photographs  give  us  incontestable 
evidence  of  a  transformation  that  is  not  only  mental  but  also 
physical,  so  that  the  criminal,  thanks  to  the  Doctor,  has  be- 
come actually  another  man. 

"Job,  for  example,^  was  15  years  old  when  he  was  admitted. 
His  mother  had  died  of  cancer  three  years  before  in  the  hospital; 
his  father  was  lazy,  tuberculous,  and  a  drunkard,  and  had  often 
been  imprisoned.  Job,  left  to  himself,  on  leaving  the  asylum 
had  started  out  as  a  pedlar;  being  without  shelter  or  resources 
he  had  been  drawn  away  by  evil  companions  and  became  a 
thorough  vagabond,  begging  on  the  street  corners  under  pre- 
tense of  ^selling  matches.  He  is  now  sober  and  does  not  smoke, 
and  is  a  fine  young  fellow,  well  developed  physically.  For 
£8  for  his  education,  and  £10  for  his  voyage,  he  has  become 
an  independent  citizen  in  a  new  country .^ 

"James,  14  years  old,  a  Liverpool  boy,  lived  with  a  married 
sister,  the  mother  of  three  children,  in  a  kind  of  cellar,  which 
the  police  required  them  to  leave.  He  had  several  times  been 
put  in  prison  for  mendicity  and  for  having  been  found  in  the 
company  of  known  criminals.  He  was  sent  to  Canada  and 
placed  upon  a  farm,  and  though  at  first  there  was  some 
trouble  because  of  his  irregular  conduct,  he  has  now  completely 
amended." 

O  noble  souls  of  Don  Bosco,  Brockway,  and  Barnardo,  take 
from  these  pages,  across  which  crime  has  trailed  its  dark  and 
dreadful  lines,  a  greeting!  for  you  alone  have  brought  us  light, 
have  opened' the  only  positive  road  to  the  prevention  of  crime. 

»  See  "Homme  Criminel,"  Atlaa,  XCII. 
»  "Night  and  Day,"  1895. 


324  CBIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  172 

§  172.  Medical  Treatment 

After  attempts  at  moral  suggestion  the  hypnotic  cure  should 
be  tried.  Although  the  effectiveness  of  this  method  has  been 
exaggerated,  it  is  certain  that  at  least  for  the  moment  certain 
tendencies  may  be  combated  successfully  by  hypnotic  methods, 
and  the  mind  given  the  proper  direction.  This  result  has  been 
obtained  with  paranoiacs.  It  ought  to  be  still  easier  to  attain 
success  when  the  malady  is  in  the  incipient  stage,  and  to  pro- 
duce by  repetition  the  habit  of  right  action.  Further,  we  must 
not  forget  that  the  basis  of  criminal  tendencies  is  always  of  an 
epileptic  nature.  According  to  Hasse  and  Esquirol,  the  epilep- 
sies that  manifest  themselves  shortly  before  the  age  of  puberty 
frequently  disappear  when  that  age  is  reached.  When  epi- 
lepsy is  hereditary  it  is  frequently  sufficient  to  remove  the 
patient  from  the  circumstances  in  which  the  parents  lived; 
for  example,  to  move  him  to  another  climate  and  to  substitute 
for  brain  work  muscular  exercise  in  the  open  air.  According 
to  Bevan-Lewis  and  Clouston,  the  hydropathic  treatment, 
coupled  with  a  vegetarian  diet,  is  very  effective.^  The  internal 
treatment  useful  in  such  cases  must  also  be  applied.  Bromides, 
opium,  belladonna,  etc.,  are  given  in  various  cases. 

^  Marro,  "La  PubertS,  Studiata  nell'  Uomo  e  nella  Donna,"  p.  438. 


CHAPTER  VII 

PREVENTION   OF   POLITICAL  CRIME 
§173. 

MANY  of  the  economic  measures  that  we  have  suggested 
for  preventing  parliamentary  corruption  and  the  excess 
of  poverty  and  wealth  would  also  be  very  eflficacious  for  the 
prevention  of  the  political  crime  that  expresses  the  discontent  of 
the  masses,  as  ordinary  crime  expresses  that  of  the  individual. 

§  174.  Racial  Afl&nity 

Historical  experience,  as  Lanessen  points  out  to  us,  shows 
that  when  a  dominant  people  is  inferior  in  power  and  culture 
the  people  ruled  always  end  by  freeing  themselves  completely. 
Of  this  Greece,  Holland,  and  the  United  States  are  examples. 
Good  politics,  then,  would  consist  in  a  voluntary  abandonment 
of  sovereignty  in  such  cases;  but  vanity  and  immediate  inter- 
ests bhnd  the  ruling  nation,  and  only  rarely  is  this  wise  resolu- 
tion taken.  An  easier  method  is  a  kind  of  incomplete  detach- 
ment, hke  that  of  Austria  and  Hungary,  and  England  and  her 
colonies,  a  device  that  diminishes  dependence,  contacts,  and 
dissensions,  thus  removing  one  of  the  greatest  causes  of  re- 
belUons  and  political  crimes,  the  more  so  as  the  people,  gov- 
erning themselves,  see  the  more  serious  evils  and  are  able  to 
remove  them. 

This  device  of  detachment  and  autonomy  is  applicable  at 
times  within  the  nation  itself,  when  there  exists  a  great  differ- 
ence of  race,  as,  for  example,  between  the  north  and  the  south 
of  Italy.  Under  these  conditions,  a  uniform  civil,  penal,  and 
political  code  provokes  continual  discontent,  which  manifests 
itself  in  insurrections.  Among  degenerate  races  showing  great 
differences,  as  in  the  case  of  the  castes  of  India  and  the  fanatical 


326  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  176 

Mohammedan  populations,  the  sole  method  of  political  con- 
ciliation consists  in  abandoning  any  attempt  at  civil  or  religious 
progress,  and  in  preserving  scrupulously  the  status  quo,  —  tliis 
even  to  the  smallest  details,  such  as  the  respect  for  the  ashes 
of  manuscripts  in  Tonquin  and  for  pork  fat  in  India.  This  is 
the  system  of  which  the  Romans  were,  and  the  English  still  are, 
masters. 

§  175.  Decentralization 

"The  future  of  society  politically  lies  in  decentralization," 
says  Spencer.  If  a  people  is  treated  Uke  a  child  it  loses  all 
spontaneity  and  becomes  incapable  of  contending  against  diffi- 
culties. Thus  it  comes  that  where  the  English  have  recourse 
to  their  mutual-aid  societies,  the  French  clamor  against  the 
government.  They  can  no  longer  have  a  free  government,  for 
when  they  are  free  they  lose  all  stability  and  give  themselves 
up  to  anarchy.  The  imperial  form  of  government,  which  is 
that  best  adapted  to  them,  is  naturally  never  liberal.  On  the 
other  hand,  by  concentrating  great  powers  in  the  hands  of  a 
few,  great  opportunity  is  given  for  corruption,  the  more  so 
when  parliamentary  immunity  protects  the  authors  of  it.  If, 
however,  you  will  allow  the  cities  to  administer  their  own  affairs 
freely,  according  to  their  importance,  to  elect  their  own  officers, 
to  have  charge  of  the  courts  of  first  instance,  secondary  educa- 
tion, the  police,  the  prisons,  the  means  of  communication,  you 
will  eliminate  a  great  cause  of  injustice  and  abuses,  and  in 
consequence  will  eliminate  also  the  political  crimes  provoked 
by  these  abuses. 

§  176.  Contest  for  Political  Supremacy 

In  order  that  one  class  in  exclusive  possession  of  the  political 
power  may  not  proceed  to  excesses  prejudicial  to  other  classes, 
it  is  necessary  that  the  people  shall  be  represented  somewhere 
among  the  multiplicity  of  historical  constituent  elements.  Thus 
the  tribunate  preserved  the  Roman  Republic  for  centuries  and 
prevented  popular  uprisings. 


§179]  PREVENTION  OF  POLITICAL  CREME  327 

§  177.  Universal  Suffrage 

Universal  suffrage  seems  destined,  in  the  course  of  time,  to 
bring  about  the  aboUtion  of  class  distinctions,  but  turned  over 
to  the  ignorant  and  corrupt  it  may  easily  be  turned  against 
liberty  itself.  The  aristocracy  of  knowledge,  which  Aristotle 
believed  impossible  but  which  has  nevertheless  existed  for  cen- 
turies in  China,  would  alone  be  fitted  to  counteract  the  power 
of  money,  acting  through  the  bourgeoisie,  and  the  power  of 
numbers  in  the  proletariat.  But  if  we  are  to  admit  universal 
suffrage,  like  a  torrent  that  cannot  be  stayed,  it  must  be  guided 
by  the  rational  voices  of  men  of  higher  worth  and  clearer  sight. 

§  178.  The  Judiciary 

The  judiciary,  for  its  part,  ought  to  be  freed  from  that  sub- 
servience to  the  legislative  power  which,  in  Italy,  paralyzes  its 
forces.  It  is  quite  different  in  America,  where  popular  election 
has  given  the  judges  a  power  and  independence  so  great  as  to 
allow  them,  upon  complaint  of  a  citizen  whose  rights  are  in- 
fringed, to  pronounce  null  and  void  laws  which  do  not  con- 
form to  the  constitution.  Noailles  ^  shows  how  this  judicial 
system,  which  comes  directly  from  the  English  common  law, 
protects  the  rights  of  the  nation  and  of  individuals  against 
the  power  of  Congress  as  much  as  it  does  the  privileges  of  the 
federal  government  and  individual  rights  against  the  power  of 
the  several  states.  When  there  is  a  conflict  between  a  clause 
of  the  constitution  and  a  legislative  enactment,  the  judicial 
power  steps  in  to  see  to  it  that  constitutional  liberty  shall  not 
be  threatened  by  the  weakness  or  the  tyranny  of  legislative 
bodies. 

§  179.  Poor  Man's  Lawyer  —  Legal  Aid  Societies 

We  see  how  the  judiciary  can  prevent  political  crimes,  which 
are  committed  in  revenge  for  great  injustices.^  The  internal 
peace  of  Rome  was  maintained  for  centuries  by  the  influence 


1 


Due  de  Noailles,  "Le  Pouvoir  Judiciare  aux  Etats-Unis"  (Revue  de 
Deux  Mondes,  Aug.  1st,  1888).  ,.  .  ,       -r.      ,  ..       ,» 

2  Lombroso  and  Laschi,   "Le  Crime  Politique  et  Lea  Revolutions, 
1891. 


328  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  181 

of  the  Tribunate,  and  that  of  Venice  by  the  relative  imparti- 
ahty  of  justice.  It  is  certain,  on  the  other  hand,  that  when 
tyrannical  governments  like  that  of  Austria  in  Italy,  and  that 
of  ancient  Piedmont,  survived  so  long  without  dissensions, 
they  owed  it  to  the  equal  justice  which,  except  in  matters  con- 
cerning the  king,  prevailed  there  by  means  of  the  "advocate 
of  the  poor,"  and  to  the  Senate,  which  had  the  right  of  abro- 
gating any  ministerial  decree  that  did  not  conform  to  the  laws. 
This  institution  of  a  popular  mediator  to  protect  the  poor 
and  weak  should  again  be  established.  I  have  observed  that 
the  voice  of  a  single  honest  tribune  (Jaures,  for  example)  often 
proves  more  powerful  against  the  errors  of  the  government 
than  the  entire  chamber.  Thus,  in  the  recent  banking  scandals, 
without  the  Boulangist  deputies  in  Paris  and  Colajanni  in 
Italy,  all  parties  would  have  united  to  hush  the  matter  up. 

§  1 80.  Ability  to  Change  the  Laws 

If  it  is  possible  for  a  political  form  to  endure,  it  is  due  to  the 
flexibility  of  its  constitution  and  laws,  which  must  adapt  them- 
selves to  new  conditions.  Switzerland  is  a  striking  proof  of 
this.  In  the  period  between  1870  and  1879  the  Swiss  made 
115  changes  in  the  constitutions  of  the  cantons  and  3  in  the 
federal  constitution;  and  they  were  able  to  maintain  their 
union  notwithstanding  great  diversity  of  race  and  custom. 

§  181.   Conservatism 

But  no  change  must  be  made  too  abruptly.  "In  order  that 
the  institutions  of  a  people  may  be  stable,"  says  Constant, 
"they  must  keep  themselves  to  the  level  of  the  people's  ideas." 
The  violent  abolition  of  serfdom  in  Russia  and  of  the  ancient 
estates  in  France  and  Germany  had  become  a  necessity  of 
justice;  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  secularization  of  the 
property  of  the  church,  when  the  accumulation  of  property  in 
mortmain  and  the  pretensions  of  the  clergy  to  exemption  from 
land-taxes  had  made  all  economic  and  political  progress  im- 
possible. Yet  these  reforms  were  not  brought  about  with- 
out immediate  troubles,  because  there  was  a  disregard  of  the 


§  184]  PREVENTION  OF  POLITICAL  CRIME  329 

law  of  conservatism,  which  does  not  permit  too  rapid  an  intro- 
duction of  innovations,  even  for  good. 

§  182.  Referendum 

The  referendum,  or  appeal  to  the  people,  is  able  to  show, 
where  it  exists,  how  far  there  exists  a  community  of  ideas  be- 
tween the  nation  and  their  representatives.  It  may  be  con- 
sidered as  the  most  powerful  instrument  for  the  education  of 
a  free  people,  because  it  forces  them  to  study  the  laws  sub- 
mitted to  them,  and,  by  making  them  feel  their  whole  respon- 
sibihty,  gives  them  a  consciousness  of  the  part  they  have  in 
the  poHtical  life  of  the  country.^ 

§  183.  Archaic  Education 

H  we  are  to  protect  ourselves  from  "occasional"  revolution- 
ists, who,  however  misguided  and  atavistic  they  and  their  meas- 
ures may  be,  still  do  advocate  reforms,  we  must  strip  our- 
selves of  the  unfortunate  heritage  received  from  our  fathers, 
the  rhetoric  of  Arcadia.  Whoever  will  study  the  revolutions 
of  1789  and  1848,  and  the  character  of  many  mattoids,  will 
see  that  one  of  the  great  causes  for  insurrection  is  the  archaic 
system  of  education,  which  is  in  complete  contrast  with  our 
positive  needs.  We  bring  up  our  young  people  in  a  hot-house 
instead  of  in  the  strong  current  of  life,  and  we  want  them  to 
be  robust !  In  this  way  we  get  aesthetes,  —  I  am  wilhng  to 
admit  that,  though  some  deny  it,  —  but  we  do  not  get  men 
capable  of  taking  part  in  the  contest  of  modern  life. 

§  184.  Economic  Discontent 

The  sole  remedy  against  our  political  criminals  who  are  such 
from  accident,  from  passion,  from  imitation,  or  from  poverty, 
consists  in  remedying  the  economic  uneasiness  in  the  country, 
since  this  is  the  true  basis  for  anarchy.  We  have  to-day  an 
economic  fanaticism,  as  we  formerly  had  a  political  fanaticism. 
It  is  imperatively  necessary  that  we  should  open  a  vent  for  this 
economic  fanaticism  with  economic  reforms  (see  above),  as  we 

1  Brunialti,  "La  Legge  e  la  Liberty,  nello  State  Modemo,"  Turin,  1888. 


330  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§  184 

have  opened  one  for  political  fanaticism  with  constitutional 
and  representative  government,  and  for  religious  fanaticism 
with  freedom  of  worship.  Now,  we  do  nothing  of  all  this;  we 
permit  taxes,  recruiting,  and  penalties  to  affect  the  poor  man 
most  severely,  and  give  him  no  compensation,  except  bright 
soap-bubbles  under  the  names  of  national  glory,  liberty,  and 
equality,  which,  by  their  contrast  with  reality,  make  his  suffer- 
ings all  the  harder  to  bear. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PENAL  INSTITUTIONS 
§185. 

TV/TEASURES  for  the  prevention  of  crime  are  unhappily, 
-*-' A  with  our  race  at  least,  a  dream  of  the  idealist.  The 
legal  world  that  rules  us,  and  for  which  the  defense  and  the 
punishment  of  the  criminal  are  sources  of  honors  and  rewards, 
has  something  to  do  besides  preventing  crime  and  devising  a 
substitute  for  the  almost  always  useless,  and  often  positively 
harmful,  penalties.  It  is  just  for  this  reason  that  we  must 
consider  these  penalties  carefully,  particularly  the  institution 
of  the  prison,  which,  according  to  the  common  notion  of  our 
legal  lights,  is  the  only  social  defense  against  crime. 

§  186.   Cellular  Prisons 

Once  we  have  decided  to  inflict  a  prison  penalty,  the  indi- 
vidual cell  seems  clearly  indicated;  for,  if  it  does  not  reform  the 
guilty,  it  prevents  his  sinking  further  into  crime  and  removes, 
at  least  in  part,  the  possibility  of  the  formation  of  associations 
of  evil-doers  by  interfering  with  the  formation  of  that  kind  of 
public  opinion  in  the  prison  that  compels  the  prisoner  to  add 
the  vices  of  his  companions  to  his  own.  The  cell  seems  also  to 
reach  the  highest  degree  of  perfection  for  the  purpose  of  judi- 
cial investigation,  isolating  the  criminal  whose  guilt  is  still  to 
be  proved;  in  the  same  way  it  is  indispensable  for  the  punish- 
ment of  the  delinquents  still  capable  of  correction,  who  have 
fallen  for  the  first  time  and  from  whom  criminal  contact  and 
association  would  soon  take  away  all  sense  of  shame.  It 
offers,  then,  real  advantages  without  the  risk  of  grave  danger 
to  health,  or  at  worst  gives  a  somewhat  greater  opportunity 
for  suicide.^     But  the  advantages  of  the  cellular  prisons  are  in 

1  Lecour,  "Du  Suicide  et  de  rAlidnation  dans  les  Prisons,"  PariSj  1876. 
According  to  this  author,  in  America  there  was:  1  death  to  49  prisoners 
in  the  common  prisons;   in  those  conducted  on  the  Auburn  system,  1  to 


332  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  186 

great  measure  neutralized  by  the  great  expense  which  makes 
their  appHcation  on  a  large  scale  impossible;  and  even  more 
objectionable  is  the  fact  that  they  favor  inertia  on  the  part  of 
the  prisoner  and  transform  him  into  an  automaton,  incapable 
of  taking  part  in  the  struggle  of  life. 

"In  the  actual  organization  of  the  prisons,"  said  Gauthier, 
"everything  is  combined  to  blot  out  the  individual,  to  annihil- 
ate his  thought,  and  destroy  his  will.  The  uniformity  of  the 
system  that  pretends  to  fashion  all  its  'subjects'  upon  the  same 
model,  the  calculated  severity  of  a  monastic  life  where  no  room 
is  left  for  the  unforeseen,  the  prohibition  of  all  intercourse  with 
the  outside  world  except  through  the  banal  monthly  letter; 
everything,  in  short,  even  to  the  miserable,  animal-like  march 
in  Indian  file,  is  fitted  to  turn  the  prisoner  into  an  unconscious 
automaton.^ 

"We  want  to  make  useful  citizens  out  of  these  prisoners, 
and  we  force  them  to  idleness.  We  accustom  them  to  find 
food  and  lodging  assured,  without  thought  for  the  morrow,  or 
any  other  concern  than  that  of  obeying  the  order  given.  We 
force  them  to  be  like  the  dog  at  the  spit,  who  had  only  to  raise 
his  foot  and  turn  the  drum,  like  an  unconscious  machine.  Is 
not  this  the  ideal  of  the  witless  and  the  cowardly?  It  is  Nirvana, 
the  paradise  of  the  Hindu. 

"For  many  an  honest  man  the  struggle  for  existence  is  not 
only  sharper,  but  much  less  safe.  WTien  the  first  repugnance 
is  overcome,  many  —  doubtless  the  majority  —  come  imper- 
ceptibly to  the  point  of  preparing  a  prison  future  for  them- 
selves." 

Gauthier  knew  a  prisoner,  a  former  army  oflBcer,  who  held 
the  post  of  paymaster  in  the  prison  of  Clairvaux  and  was 
serving  his  fourth  or  fifth  term.  Toward  the  end  of  1883, 
being,  to  his  great  displeasure,  near  the  end  of  his  sentence,  he 
begged  that  his  place  should  be  saved  for  him  until  he  was  sen- 
tenced again. 

"And  we  may  remark  that,  save  for  a  few  honorable  excep- 
tions, for  nearly  all  the  directors  of  prisons  the  ideal  of  a  'good 

54.  In  France  there  is  1  to  14  in  the  cellular  prisons.  According  to 
Alauzet,  in  8  prisons  oh  the  Auburn  S3'stem,  in  America,  there  is  an 
average  of  1  death  to  50  with  a  minimum  of  1  to  81.  In  Philadelphia 
the  cellular  prison  gives  1  death  to  83;  in  France  1  to  39.  ("Essai  sur 
les  Peines,"  1863.) 

1  "Le  Mode  des  Prisons,"  Paris,  1888. 


§186]  PENAL  mSTITUTIONS  333 

prisoner'  is  the  recidivist,  the  veteran,  the  habitual  criminal, 
whose  prison  experience  and  the  docility  he  has  acquired  are 
guarantees  of  his  orderly  conduct. 

"The  unfortunate  thing  is  that  this  'good  prisoner,'  according 
to  the  formula,  under  this  regime  is  not  slow  in  becoming  in- 
capable of  resisting  his  companions,  criminals  by  birth  or  by 
profession.  He  has  so  little  power  of  resisting  unhealthy  stimuli, 
the  desire  for  unlawful  gain,  and  the  attraction  of  evil  examples, 
that  he  is  worse  than  the  'bad'  prisoner. 

"The  only  ambition  that  remains  to  him  is  for  crime  and 
wickedness,  the  result  of  the  special  education  which  he  and 
other  convicts  have  given  each  other.  It  is  not  without  reason 
that  in  criminals'  slang  the  prison  is  spoken  of  as  '  the  college.' " 

To  these  things  must  be  added  the  tale-bearing,  quarrel- 
someness, lying,  and  all  the  other  special  vices  acquired  or 
developed  in  prison. 

"In  the  presence  of  the  solitude  and  miserable  formalism  of 
the  prison,"  writes  Prins,  the  Belgian  prison  director,  "we  must 
ask  ourselves  whether  the  man  of  the  lower  classes  can  be  re- 
generated only  through  solitude  and  formalism. 

"Voluntary  isolation  may  elevate  the  mind  of  the  poet, 
but  what  effect  can  the  solitude  imposed  upon  the  criminal 
have,  other  than  to  lower  his  moral  level  more  and  more?  Do 
we  teach  a  child  to  walk  by  putting  difficulties  in  his  way, 
or  by  filling  him  with  fear  of  a  fall  and  making  him  hang  on  to 
others?  Shall  we  teach  a  man  to  take  his  place  in  society  by 
shutting  him  up  in  a  solitary  cell,  in  a  situation  as  unlike  the 
social  life  as  possible,  and  by  taking  from  him  even  the  appear- 
ance of  any  moral  exercise,  by  regulating  from  morning  till 
night  the  smallest  details  of  his  daily  movements  and  even 
thoughts?  If  it  were  a  question  of  making  good  scholars,  good 
workmen,  or  good  soldiers,  should  we  be  willing  to  accept  the 
method  of  prolonged  cellular  confinement?  If  this  method 
is  condemned,  then,  by  the  experience  of  ordinary  life,  it  will 
not  become  useful  the  moment  the  court  pronounces  sentence." 

Other  proofs  of  the  evil  effects  of  the  prison  may  be  found 
by  consulting  my  " Palimpsestes  de  la  Prison."  See,  for  ex- 
ample, these  lines  written  by  a  prisoner: 

"I  am  18  years  old;  misfortune  has  made  me  guilty  several 
times,  and  each  time  I  have  been  shut  up  in  prison.  But  how 
have  I  been  reformed  in  prison?  what  have  I  learned?  I  have 
perfected  myself  in  wickedness  there." 


334  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  186 

And  this: 

"To  try  to  correct  an  idler  and  a  thief  by  subjecting  them  to 
idleness  is  surely  absurd. 

"...  Poor  prisoners!  They  are  regarded  as  so  many 
animals;  they  are  kept  shut  up  like  so  many  white  bears,  under 
pretense  of  reforming  them.  ...  In  penal  institutions  a  man 
learns  to  hate  society,  but  not  to  make  an  honest  man  out  of  a 
thief.  They  are  the  universities  of  thieves,  where  the  old  teach 
the  young  their  trade.  To  enter  this  hotel  there  is  no  need  of 
money  even  to  tip  the  servants.  As  for  myself,  I  thank  God  I 
am  happier  than  St.  Peter.  Here  in  my  cell  I  am  served  by 
lackeys.  What  a  Utopia!  This  is  better  than  being  in  the 
country." 

And  another: 

"Friends,  do  not  try  to  escape  from  prison.  Here  we  eat, 
drink,  sleep,  without  the  need  of  working." 

I  have  even  found  a  cryptogram  in  which  a  friend  was  urged 
to  commit  a  crime  in  order  to  get  into  prison  again.  "For 
the  two  of  us  the  time  will  pass  more  quickly,  and  when  we  are 
in  the  galley  we  can  tell  each  other  the  story  of  our  hves."  Le 
Blanc,  a  notorious  thief,  said  to  Guisquet,  the  prefect  of  police: 
"If  we  are  arrested,  we  finish  by  living  at  the  expense  of  others; 
we  are  clothed,  fed,  and  warmed,  and  all  this  at  the  cost  of 
those  we  have  despoiled." 

What  is  still  more  serious,  there  are  a  great  number  who  find 
prison  life  a  real  source  of  pleasure.  We  may  say  that  in  place 
of  the  complete  isolation  from  the  external  world,  that  theo- 
retically belongs  to  cellular  prisons,  there  exist  manifold  means 
of  information  and  communication,  all  the  more  harmful 
(especially  for  judicial  investigations)  from  the  fact  that  they 
are  unforeseen  and  unknown. 

"The  walls  of  a  prison,"  writes  Gauthier  again,  "under  the 
very  eyes  of  the  guards,  offer  a  world  of  information  and  are 
marvelous  instruments  of  correspondence.  Thus,  when  I 
found  myself  at  Cholon-on-the-Saone,  in  the  most  secret  cell, 
I  learned  of  arrests  that  had  been  made  in  Lyons,  Paris,  and 
Vienne  on  my  account,  news  which  was  of  great  importance 
to  me.  .  .  .  There  is  first  the  little  cord,  stretched  by  the 
weight  of  a  ball  made  of  breadcrumb,  and  so  thrown  from  one 


§186]  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS  335 

window  to  another,  while  one  holds  on  to  the  bars  of  the  win- 
dow. There  are  books  in  the  hbrary  which  circulate  covered 
with  cryptograms.  Then  the  pipes  for  water  and  hot  air  make 
excellent  speaking-tubes.  Another  dodge,  which  needs  per- 
sons with  some  instruction,  is  that  by  knocking  on  the  wall. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  the  persons  communicating  by  this 
method  should  be  in  contiguous  cells,  I  once  got  valuable  news 
in  this  way  from  a  comrade  40  or  50  meters  off."  (Op.  cit.) 

Nothing  is  secret  in  prison.  A  judge  havmg  asked  a  certain 
prisoner  at  the  Assizes  how  he  communicated  with  his  accom- 
pHces,  the  prisoner  replied:  "To  keep  us  from  communicating 
you  would  have  to  keep  one  of  us  in  France  and  send  the  other 
to  heU."  1 

But  the  aristocracy  of  crime,  the  rich  or  influential  criminals, 
have  no  need  of  these  expedients.  The  guards  have  nothing 
to  lose  by  favoring  their  commimication  with  the  outside  world, 
and  the  cellular  system  makes  it  easy  to  do  this  with  impunity, 
for  who  can  know  what  passes  in  a  solitary  cell.''  I  have  my- 
self had  direct  evidence  that  facts  are  known  in  prison 
before  they  are  pubhshed  in  the  outside  world.  The  removal 
of  a  procurator-general  was  announced  to  me  in  prison  several 
days  before  it  took  place,  and  when  no  one,  not  even  the  offi- 
cial himself,  knew  of  it.  By  studying  the  wall-inscriptions  and 
documents  of  the  prisoners  in  the  great  cellular  prison  in  Turin,^ 
I  have  become  convinced  that,  while  it  is  supposed  that  associa- 
tion and,  above  all,  comradeship,  are  prevented  by  the  cell 
system,  in  reality  the  "esprit  de  corps"  is  strengthened,  where 
before  it  hardly  existed.  I  have  found  in  the  writings  of  the 
prisoners  how  one  of  them  affectionately  salutes  his  successors, 
another  leaves  a  crayon  for  his  comrades  that  they  may  be 
able  to  write,  a  third  advises  comrades  equally  unknown  to 
feign  insanity  in  order  to  escape  sentence.  I  have  seen  how 
the  walls  of  the  exercise  yard,  continually  re- whitewashed, 
formed  a  kind  of  daily  newspaper,  carried  on  also,  in  summer, 
on  the  sand  and  the  dirty  windows,  and  in  winter  on  the  snow 
and  in  the  books  that  the  convicts  are  permitted  to  read.  In 
studying  the  wall-inscriptions  I  have  found  that  out  of  1000, 

1  "Gazetta  dei  Giuristi,"  42. 

«  "Palimpsestes  de  la  Prison,"  1889,  pp.  21-56. 


336  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  186 

182  had  reference  to  comrades,  900  were  simple  salutations,  45 
contained  news  of  trials,  and  27  were  encouragements  to  com- 
mit further  crimes. 

There  is  in  the  prisons  a  bureau  connected  with  the  admin- 
istration department,  called  the  matriculation  office,  in  which 
there  are  always  some  prisoners  kept,  since  here  all  are  examined 
and  observed  when  they  enter  and  when  they  leave.  This  office 
is  a  center  for  imparting  news,  from  which  it  is  disseminated 
throughout  the  cells  by  the  prisoners.  Will  it  be  believed  that 
even  upon  audience  days  there  are  to  be  found  collected  in  this 
ante-chamber  a  dozen  or  more  convicts.'*  Thus,  at  the  very 
moment  of  judicial  investigation,  almost  under  the  eyes  of  the 
judge,  and  for  the  very  prisoner  who  is  being  examined,  this 
system  that  has  cost  society  so  much  is  made  futile. 

I  have  not  spoken  of  workshops.  In  the  cellular  prisons  the 
efforts  to  prevent  communication  allow  very  little  work  to  be 
done.  From  this  there  results,  beside  the  injury  to  the  state 
and  to  the  prisoner  who  is  kept  in  idleness,  a  still  graver  danger 
for  the  future.  The  active  prisoners  become  accustomed  to 
idleness,  if  they  do  not  die  of  it,  while  the  lazy  ones  are  just  in 
their  element;  consequently,  when  they  go  out  they  commit  new 
crimes  in  order  to  return.  But  if  work  is  allowed,  it  is  impossi- 
ble, even  if  those  are  excluded  who  have  fellow-prisoners,  to 
prevent  new  relationships  from  being  formed  with  the  foremen 
of  the  free  workshops,  the  contractors,  etc.  The  consequence 
of  this  is  that  the  investigations  which  are  kept  secret  from  the 
public  are  no  secret  at  all  from  the  accused  person  himself. 

"The  object  of  cellular  isolation,"  writes  Prins,^  "is  to  re- 
generate the  guilty  by  checking  the  evil  influence  of  fellow 
prisoners,  in  order  that  only  the  beneficent  influence  of  respect- 
able men  may  be  operative.  But  see  the  real  facts.  Everywhere 
the  guards,  who  are  supposed  to  represent  the  good  elements 
of  society  to  the  convict,  are  men  devoted  to  duty,  but  they 
are  recruited  from  the  very  sphere  of  society  to  which  the 
convicts  themselves  belong;  sometimes  they  are  'declasses' 
without  employment,  who  for  a  ridiculously  small  salary,  insuffi- 
cient for  the  maintenance  of  a  family,  have  to  live  very  much 
as  the  prisoners  do.    Too  few  in   numbers  (scarcely  1  to  25 

^  "Lea  Criminels  en  Prison,"  1893. 


§  187]  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS  337 

or  30  prisoners),  they  naturally  are  able  to  do  little  more  than 
cast  a  glance  into  the  cell  or  at  the  work,  and  see  that  the  rules 
are  observed.  It  is  to  these  empty  formalities  and  to  the  too 
hasty  visit  of  an  official  or  a  chaplain  that  those  charged  with 
transforming  or  amending  the  guilty  come  to  hmit  their  efforts.'* 

We  see  from  all  this  how  necessary  it  is  to  change  our  ideas  about 
prisons. 

§  187.  The  Graded  System 

Everyone  will  understand  why  penologists,  having  only  this 
mournful  expedient  of  a  prison,  have  tried  to  improve  it  as 
much  as  possible.  It  is  as  a  result  of  such  efforts  that  the  Irish 
system  has  won  so  much  applause.  This  system  is  as  follows: 
The  criminal  passes  the  first  period  in  solitary  confinement,  not 
exceeding  nine  months,  which  may  be  reduced  to  eight;  during 
this  period  he  has  only  a  vegetable  diet,  poor  clothing,  and  a 
monotonous  task  of  oakum-picking.  In  the  second  grade  there 
is  collective  work,  rigidly  watched,  which  is  divided  into  four 
classes  each  more  privileged  and  advantageous  than  the  one 
below,  into  which  the  convict  passes  successively  after  having 
obtained  by  his  work  and  good  conduct  a  certain  number  of 
merit  marks.  In  the  first  class  the  door  of  the  cell  remains 
open  during  the  day;  the  work  is  not  regularly  paid  for,  but 
may  perhaps  be  rewarded  with  a  penny.  After  having  received 
54  merit  marks  the  prisoner  passes  successively  into  the  other 
classes,  where  he  receives  greater  and  greater  compensation  and 
also  instruction,  and  finds  himself  more  in  contact  with  the 
public,  and  so  on.  This  grade  having  been  passed  through, 
there  commences  for  the  convicts  the  grade  of  almost  complete 
independence  (intermediate  prison)  with  work  in  the  field. 
They  wear  their  own  clothing,  receive  wages,  may  be  allowed 
to  absent  themselves,  and  are  in  continual  contact  with  the  out- 
side world.  From  the  conclusion  of  this  grade  until  the  end  of 
their  sentence  they  have  provisional  liberty  under  the  surveil- 
lance of  the  poHce,  who,  in  case  they  go  wrong,  send  them  back 
to  prison.  Before  they  go  out  they  are  registered,  photographed, 
and  warned  that  the  first  sHp  will  bring  them  back  to  prison. 
When  they  first  reach  their  destination  they  must  report  to  the 


338  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  187 

police,  and  monthly  thereafter.    The  police  look  after  them  and 
help  them  get  work. 

This  is  a  magnificent  means  of  getting  these  rude  and  lazy 
beings  into  the  notion  of  being  virtuous,  or  at  least  of  working. 
The  criminal  can  in  this  way  cut  down  his  sentence  (and  the 
state  its  expense)  by  a  sixth  or  even  a  third,  and  as  every  mis- 
demeanor means  being  reduced  to  a  lower  grade,  the  most 
dreaded  of  penalties,  all  other  punishments  become  unneces- 
sary in  the  intermediate  grades.  The  results  obtained  in  Ire- 
land by  this  reform  were  satisfactory,  at  least  in  appearance; 
since  1854,  when  the  system  was  introduced,  there  has  been  a 
remarkable  reduction  in  crimes.    The  following  are  the  figures: 

Year  Entered  during  year   Total  convicts 

1854 710  3933 

1857 426  2614 

1860 331  1631 

1869 191  1325 

1870 245  1236 

We  may  add  that  this  reform  unites  economy  (upon  which 
depends  the  possibility  of  applying  any  system)  with  the  de- 
mands of  criminal  psychology,  by  permitting  a  gradual  passage 
to  complete  liberty.  It  thus  makes  of  the  criminal's  perpetual 
dream  of  freedom  a  means  of  discipline  and  reformation.  It 
offers  besides  a  means  of  overcoming  the  prejudice  of  the 
public  against  the  liberated  convicts,  and  inspires  the  convicts 
themselves  with  confidence. 

In  Denmark  the  convicts  remain  in  their  cells  night  and  day, 
and  work  there  for  their  own  advantage.  The  incorrigible 
prisoners  and  the  recidivists,  after  six  years,  live  in  common  in 
a  special  prison,  and  have  no  other  reward  for  their  good  con- 
duct than  the  freedom  of  working  in  the  fields  near  the  prison. 
Those  who  are  young  and  can  still  be  reformed,  or  those  who 
are  convicted  for  the  first  time  for  a  minor  offense  with  a  sen- 
tence of  from  three  to  six  months  at  the  most,  remain  in  a  special 
cellular  prison.  They  are  divided  according  to  their  conduct 
into  different  grades.  In  the  first  (from  three  to  six  months) 
there  is  absolute  seclusion,  instruction  in  the  cell,  work  without 
pay,  and  only  writing  on  the  slate  allowed.    In  the  second  grade 


§  187]  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS  339 

(six  months)  they  receive  two  shillings  a  day  for  their  work,  are 
taught  in  school  but  separated  from  others,  can  have  paper  on 
holidays  and  books  every  fortnight,  may  purchase  with  half 
their  pay  a  mirror  and  an  almanac,  may  write  letters  and  receive 
visits  every  two  months.  In  the  third  grade,  which  is  twelve 
months  at  least,  they  receive  three  shillings  a  day,  have  books 
or  paper  every  week,  are  allowed  to  buy  many  useful  things, 
and  send  money  to  their  famiUes,  receive  visits  every  six  weeks, 
and  may  have  the  portraits  of  their  families.  In  the  fourth 
grade  they  get  four  shillings  a  day,  and,  besides  other  advantages 
which  are  more  and  more  conceded  to  them,  they  can  go  out  of 
their  cells,  work  in  the  open  air,  and  have  flowers  and  birds. 
Their  sentence  may  be  reduced  for  good  conduct,  a  sentence 
of  eight  months  to  six,  of  three  years  to  one,  and  of  six  years  to 
three  and  one-half.  Thus  they  pass  from  absolute  soUtude  to 
solitude  at  night  only,  from  absolute  silence  to  work  in  the 
field  and  an  almost  complete  liberty.  Hardly  10%  remain  in 
their  cells  more  than  two  years. ^ 

Let  us  hail  these  institutions  as  a  great  step  in  advance,  but 
let  us  not  be  under  any  illusion  about  them.  There  are  other 
things  to  be  remembered.  In  Ireland  the  statistics  are  affected 
by  emigration,  for  liberated  convicts,  not  finding  work,  went  to 
America,  where  they  peopled  the  penitentiaries.^  Moreover, 
even  with  this  system  there  are  many  recidivists  in  Denmark, 
and  still  more  in  England,  where,  as  it  appears,  the  paroled 
convicts  easily  change  their  residence,  and  notwithstanding  the 
law  go  to  places  where  they  are  unknown.  There  they  do  not 
act  directly,  but  make  use  of  the  services  of  other  criminals. 
According  to  Davis,  chaplain  of  Newgate,^  one  sheriff  had  cases 
of  prisoners  released  with  ticket-of-leave,  convicted  a  second 
time,  again  released  on  ticket-of-leave,  and  convicted  a  third 
time,  all  before  the  original  sentence  had  expired.  One  of  these, 
who  was  36  years  old,  had  been  sentenced  to  a  term  of  more 
than  40  years,  and  was  free! 

This  is  why  the  number  of  paroled  prisoners  in  England, 

1  Pears,  "Prisons,  etc.,"  1872;  Beltrani-Scalia,  op.  cit. 

2  "Riv.  di  Disciplina  Carceraria,"  1877,  p.  39. 

'  Cere,  "Lea  Populations  Dangereuses,"  1872,  p.  103. 


340  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  187 

which  rose  to  2892  in  1854,  fell  to  922  in  1857,  to  912  in  1858, 
to  252  in  1859,  and  did  not  rise  above  1400  in  1861-62-63.1 
In  Germany,  also,  the  number  of  those  conditionally  liberated 
fell  from  3141,  the  figure  for  1871,  to  733  in  1872,  and  421  in 
1874.  This  lack  of  success  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  imprudence 
with  which  released  convicts  are  allowed  to  change  their  resi- 
dence and  to  the  practice  of  turning  over  to  them  their  entire 
savings;  also  to  the  fact  that  many  employers,  more  selfish  than 
the  philanthropists,  seek  only  their  own  immediate  profit  from 
the  convicts  and  do  not  further  concern  themselves  with  their 
conduct;  and  finally  to  a  lack  of  active  and  continual  surveil- 
lance, where  a  large  number  of  individuals  are  concerned. 

Together  with  gradations  of  punishments  it  is  well  to  apply 
what  I  have  called  individualization  of  punishment,  which  con- 
sists in  applying  special  methods  of  repression  and  occupation 
adapted  to  each  individual,  as  a  physician  does  in  prescribing 
dietary  rules  and  special  remedies  according  to  the  tempera- 
ment of  each  patient.  Here  is  the  secret  of  the  success  attained 
in  Saxony  (Zwickau),  where  there  are  special  prisons  for  the 
old  and  for  the  young,  for  heavy  penalties  and  for  light  ones, 
and  where,  according  to  the  merits  of  each  prisoner,  his  food, 
his  clothes,  and  the  severity  of  his  penalty  are  changed.  But 
these  measures  can  be  carried  out  only  for  criminaloids,  and  in 
small  prisons,  with  very  able  directors.  Otherwise  the  prize  of 
liberty  will  fall  to  the  worst  criminals,  who  make  the  best  pris- 
oners, being  the  most  hypocritical.  For  these  reasons  such 
reforms  cannot  be  left  to  be  administered  by  a  short-sighted 
bureaucracy. 

Besides  these  institutions  it  is  necessary  to  seek  to  develop 
right  feeling  in  the  convicts.  We  must  remember  that  virtue 
is  not  to  be  created  artificially;  and  that  the  best  results  are  to 
be  obtained  by  basing  it  upon  the  interests  and  passions  of  men. 
A  man  may  lose  his  life,  but  he  cannot  be  stripped  of  his  pas- 
sions, and  all  men,  even  the  most  depraved,  need  an  interest  and 
an  aim  to  guide  them  in  life.  They  may  be  insensible  to  threats, 
to  fear,  and  even  to  physical  suffering,  but  they  never  are  in- 
sensible to  vanity,  to  the  need  of  distinguishing  themselves, 

^  Cere,  op.  cU.,  p.  100. 


§  187]  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS  341 

and  above  all  to  the  hope  of  liberty.  This  is  why  sermons  and 
lessons  of  abstract  moraUty  are  useless.  We  have  to  use  the 
convicts'  vanity  as  a  lever,  to  interest  them  in  the  good  by  grant- 
ing them  material  advantages,  such  as  the  gradual  diminution 
of  their  penalty.  Good  results  may  be  obtained  by  instituting 
a  kind  of  decoration,  and  merit  and  demerit  marks.  The  pris- 
oners must  be  permitted  to  pass  according  to  merit  into  the 
privileged  classes,  where  they  can,  for  example,  wear  ordinary 
clothing  and  a  beard,  ornament  their  cells  with  flowers  and 
pictures,  receive  visits,  work  for  themselves  and  their  family, 
and,  finally,  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  much-desired  perspective  of 
temporary  liberty. 

To  gain  liberty  is  the  dream  and  constant  thought  of  prisoners, 
and  when  they  see  a  way  open  before  them,  more  safe  and  cer- 
tain than  that  of  a  surreptitious  escape,  they  will  take  it  at 
once.  They  will  do  right,  it  is  true,  only  to  obtain  their  liberty, 
not  for  its  own  sake,  but  as  movements  repeated  become  a  sec- 
ond nature,  so  we  may  hope  that  they  will  form  the  habit  of 
right  conduct.  This  is  why  the  right  of  pardon  should  be  abol- 
ished, since  it  makes  prisoners  hope  for  liberty  by  the  favor  of 
someone  else. 

"It  is  necessary,"  says  Despine  rightly,  "to  elevate  the 
criminal  in  his  own  eyes,  by  making  him  understand  that  he 
can  reconquer  the  respect  of  the  world;  we  must  fill  his  soul 
with  the  need  of  becoming  honest  by  utilizing  the  same  passions 
which  would  make  him  still  more  depraved  if  left  to  himself." 

Despine,  Clam,  De  Metz,  Montesinos,  and  Brockway  have 
counted  so  much  upon  the  influence  of  honor  among  the  crim- 
inals that  they  have  left  them  almost  free  upon  their  parole 
during  their  work;  and  fierce  men,  whom  twenty  guards  could 
scarcely  restrain,  never  even  thought  of  escaping.  Ferrus  tells 
of  a  thief  who  was  converted  by  a  Sister  in  prison,  who,  with 
this  end  in  view,  trusted  him  with  the  care  of  the  wardrobe. 
A  convicted  carpenter  was  unbearable  because  of  his  extreme 
violence;  the  oversight  of  other  convicts  was  given  to  him,  and 
he  became  the  most  docile  of  all.  A  prisoner  of  Citeaux,  wearied 
by  his  labor,  threw  his  mattock  at  the  feet  of  the  director, 
Albert  Reey;  the  latter,  without  saying  a  word,  took  up  the 


342  CRBIE:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  187 

tool  and  went  to  work  in  the  other's  place.  The  unfortunate 
man,  struck  by  this  noble  lesson  of  practical  morality,  took  up 
his  work,  and  did  not  offend  again.  These  examples  show  us 
clearly  how  we  must  set  about  to  reform  these  men.  We  must 
act  upon  them  by  example  more  than  by  word,  by  morality 
in  action  more  than  by  theoretical  teaching.  Strict  discipline 
is  incontestably  necessary  with  them,  the  more  so  since  light 
punishments,  having  but  a  slight  effect,  have  to  be  repeated 
more  often  and  for  this  reason  are  less  eflScacious  than  severe 
punishments  that  are  rare;  but  too  great  severity  is  certainly 
more  harmful  than  useful.  Severity  bends  but  does  not  reform 
them,  and  it  makes  them  hypocrites. 

Adult  criminals  ought  to  be  considered  as  children,^  as  moral 
invalids,  who  must  be  cared  for  at  once  with  mildness  and  with 
severity,  but  more  of  the  first  than  of  the  second,  because  the 
spirit  of  vengeance,  the  excitability  which  is  the  basis  of  their 
character,  makes  them  consider  even  the  lightest  punishment  as 
a  persecution.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  too  strict  a  silence  is 
detrimental  to  morals.  An  old  prisoner  said  to  Despine:  "  When 
you  shut  your  eyes  to  our  breaches  of  discipline  we  talked 
more,  but  we  did  not  offend  against  morality;  now  we  speak 
less,  but  we  blaspheme  and  conspire."  In  Denmark,  when  the 
greatest  severity  prevailed  in  the  prisons  there  were  30%  of 
misdemeanors;  now,  with  a  milder  regime,  there  are  only  6%. 
Despine  used  an  excellent  method,  by  not  inflicting  punishment 
until  some  time  after  the  offense,  in  order  not  to  appear  to  yield 
to  a  fit  of  passion.  The  guilty  prisoner  was  led  to  a  meditation 
cell;  the  director  went  in  only  after  an  hour  to  tell  him  the  pen- 
alty which  the  rule  required;  often  the  whole  group  to  which 
the  guilty  person  belongs  was  blamed  and  punished.  This  is 
a  method  used  by  Obermayer  with  great  success. 

Work  ought  to  be  the  first  care  and  the  highest  aim  of  every 
penal  institution,  in  order  to  awaken  the  energy  of  the  pris- 
oner and  give  him  the  habit  of  productive  labor,  necessary  after 
his  liberation.  It  is,  further,  an  instrument  of  penitentiary 
discipUne,  and  also  a  means  of  indemnifying  the  state  for  the 

*  Miss  Carpenter,  who  gave  her  life  to  them,  said:  "They  are  great 
children,  whom  society  ought  to  govern  as  it  governs  children." 


§  187]  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS  343 

expense  incurred;  ^  but  this  last  consideration  is  only  secondary 
and  should  not  be  made  the  principal  end,  for  many  lucrative 
occupations  cannot  be  used  to  advantage.  We  ought,  for  reasons 
above  mentioned,  to  avoid  the  trades  of  locksmith,  photog- 
rapher, penman,  etc.,  which  prepare  the  way  for  other  crimes. 
We  should  prefer,  on  the  contrary,  farm  work,  which  shows  the 
minimum  of  criminahty  in  our  statistics  and  gives  an  easy 
means  of  placing  the  discharged  convicts;  we  may  also  use 
straw  and  wicker  work,  rope-making,  typography,  pottery-mak- 
ing, stone-cutting,  etc.;  and  we  should  admit  only  as  a  last  resort 
occupations  Uke  book-binding  and  cabinet-making,  which  re- 
quire the  use  of  tools  that  might  become  dangerous. 

In  every  way  the  work  ought  to  be  proportioned  to  the  forces 
and  instincts  of  the  convict,  who,  if  he  has  accomplished  as 
much  as  he  is  capable  of,  although  that  may  be  little,  ought  to 
receive  a  proportionate  reward,  if  not  in  money,  at  least  in  the 
shortening  of  his  sentence.  For  this  reason  I  believe  that  it  is 
necessary  to  eliminate  the  contractor  from  the  prison  system, 
since  he  seeks  naturally  to  favor  the  most  skilful  and,  neverthe- 
less, in  certain  countries,  even  has  control  of  the  pardoning  of 
the  prisoners. 

We  must  try  to  give  criminals  a  love  for  work  by  making  it 
a  reward  for  good  conduct  and  a  relief  from  the  boredom  of 
prison.  It  is  not  best,  then,  to  impose  it  upon  them;  they  must 
be  brought,  by  means  of  a  cellular  detention  more  or  less  pro- 
longed, to  want  it  and  ask  for  it  (Crofton).  If  we  want  to  make 
the  work  profitable  and  to  establish  the  spirit  of  comradeship 

1  Only  the  prisons  of  Charlestown,  Chatham,  Portsmouth,  and  Ali- 
pore,  as  far  as  I  know,  give  returns  nearly  equal  to  their  expenses.  In 
1871-72  Chatham  and  Portsmouth  even  showed  a  profit  of  £17,759. 
According  to  Garelli  the  Italian  prisons  cost  the  state  32,000,000  lire, 
and  brought  in  only  \}4  ("Lezioni  sulla  Riforma  delle  Carceri,"  1862). 
According  to  Nicotera  ("Relazione  sul  Lavoro  dei  Detenuti,"  1876),  there 
were  in  1874r-75  38,407  prisoners  working,  and  32,178  unoccupied.  Of 
the  workers  one-fourth  were  weavers,  one-sixth  shoemakers,  one-twentieth 
joiners,  one-tenth  agricultural  laborers,  and  one-one  hundredth  employed 
in  salt-works.  The  net  profit  for  the  administration  in  1871  was  1,632^30 
lire,  and  the  prisoners  received  wages  at  the  rate  of  0.47  Im;  a  day.  This 
compares  favorably  with  the  wages  paid  in  Belgium  (0.26).  Hungary  (0.22), 
and  Austria  (0.41).  In  Austria  a  convict  can  be  obliged  to  pay  a  certain 
sum  for  his  detention.  In  Berne  he  must  earn  at  least  75  centimes  a  day 
to  get  the  benefit  of  his  labor.  In  France  he  receives  one-thu-d  of  what 
he  earns. 


344  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  189 

and  emulation,  which  is  one  of  the  principal  foundations  of  the 
reform  of  the  prisoner,  it  is  well,  after  the  first  period  has  been 
gone  through,  to  mitigate  the  severity  of  the  cellular  system  by 
allowing  the  prisoners  to  work  together  in  small  groups,  accord- 
ing to  the  necessities  of  their  occupation. 

The  work  must  not,  however,  be  made  a  pretext  for  too  many 
privileges,  granted  either  generally  or  individually.  Mareska 
attributes  much  recidivism  to  the  privileges  given  to  certain 
clerks  in  prison.  He  heard  one  day  one  of  these  say  to  a  new- 
comer: "You  fool,  with  a  little  scribbling  you  are  better  off  in 
here  than  outside,"  ^  —  words  which  recall  those  of  the  Sicilian 
prisoner  to  the  judge  (Part  I,  Ch.  XVII),  and  explain  the 
fact,  known  by  many  prison  directors,  that  the  worst  rogues 
are  the  most  docile  in  the  prisons,  and  in  appearance  the  most 
repentant. 

§  1 88.  Wages  and  Savings 

A  further  means  of  moral  reform  has  been  suggested  by  De 
Metz  and  Olivecrona  to  prevent  the  recidivism  of  freed  convicts. 
They  advise  that  the  money  earned  in  prison,  which  is  generally 
turned  over  to  the  prisoners  when  discharged  and  often  becomes 
their  capital  for  criminal  enterprises,  should  be  deposited  as  a 
guarantee  of  their  good  behavior  and  as  a  forced  means  of  sav- 
ing. It  could  be  lodged  with  the  government  of  the  munici- 
pality to  which  they  go  or  with  the  employer,  and  the 
interest  alone  paid  to  them.  In  Belgium  and  Holland  seven- 
tenths  of  the  wages  of  those  condemned  to  compulsory  labor  is 
retained,  six-tenths  in  the  case  of  those  sentenced  to  sohtary 
confinement,  and  five-tenths  in  the  case  of  those  in  the  simple 
prisons;  the  rest  is  divided  into  two  parts,  of  which  one  may 
be  used  in  prison  and  the  other  on  going  out.  In  England  the 
money  is  handed  over  to  the  released  prisoner  with  his  ticket, 
if  it  does  not  exceed  £5.  When  it  exceeds  this  amount  it  is 
paid  in  instalments  upon  certificate  of  good  conduct. 

§  189.  Homes,  etc.,  for  Released  Convicts 

Many  advise  also  homes  for  the  reception  and  employment 
of  released  prisoners,  but,  aside  from  the  fact  that  they  cannot 
1  "Des  Progres  de  la  Reforme,"  1838,  III. 


§  189]  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS  345 

be  applied  upon  a  scale  corresponding  with  the  need,  experi- 
ence has  shown  to  those  who  study  these  institutions  in  the 
w  orld  and  not  in  books  that  they  have  no  value  in  the  case  of 
adults,  but,  on  the  contrary,  very  often  increase  the  tendency 
to  idleness,  and  are  rendezvous  for  criminal  associations. 

"Out  of  a  hundred  liberated  convicts,  twenty  to  forty  years 
of  age,  received  in  the  'patronage'  at  Milan,"  writes  SpagHardi, 
"only  the  youngest,  and  few  even  of  those,  responded  at  all 
to  the  immense  efforts  made  for  their  restoration. 

"The  tendency  to  idleness  and  to  libertinage,  increased  by 
the  privations  they  had  undergone,  and  the  fact  that  they 
could  come  and  go  at  pleasure  decided  them,  after  two  or  three 
months,  to  leave  the  asylum,  the  more  so  as  they  did  not  see 
in  the  director  the  man  who  was  sacrificing  himself  for  their 
good.  He  was  to  them  only  an  enemy,  and  almost  a  tyrant. 
Hence  there  was  a  silent  war  against  him  carried  on  by  insults, 
insubordination,  violence,  and  threats." 

This  is  why  the  statistics  of  these  institutions  are  so  limited 
and  so  deceptive.  In  France  out  of  16,000  convicts  released 
from  prison  363  were  assisted.  In  England  48  societies  extended 
aid  to  12,000.  In  general  it  is  considered  unwise  to  establish 
institutions  for  more  than  temporary  help  or  to  give  help  in 
money.  Instead,  food  and  lodging  should  be  given  for  future 
work,  and  the  society  should  dismiss  those  who  are  lazy  and  also 
keep  informed  of  the  conduct  of  the  persons  whom  they  recom- 
mend to  positions.  For  this  purpose  a  special  agent  is  necessary.^ 
Maxime  du  Camp  ^  also  recognizes  the  uselessness  of  assistance 
rendered  to  born  or  habitual  criminals,  while  it  may  be  very 
useful  with  accidental  criminals. 

"  Among  the  criminals,"  he  rightly  says,  "  there  are  those 
who  become  drunk  on  a  glass  of  water;  cashiers  who  make 
errors  in  figures ;  clerks  who  become  confused  about  prices  and 
end  by  committing  irregularities,  which  appear  dishonest  and 
bring  them  before  the  courts,  where  they  become  still  more 
confused  and  are  convicted.  These,  once  liberated,  will  not 
fall  again  into  guilt,  if  they  find  an  employment  suited  to  their 
limited  intelligence." 

1  Lemarque,  "La  Rehabilitation,  etc.,"  Paris,  1877;  Brown,  "Sugges- 
tions on  the  Reformation  of  Discharged  Prisoners,"  1870. 

2  "Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,"  1889. 


346  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  190 

For  these,  I  admit,  assistance  is  necessary.  Further,  there 
are  occasional  criminals,  who,  having  been  tempted  by  some 
opportunity  for  pleasure,  have  stumbled  the  first  time  and 
robbed  their  employer.  Such  persons,  if  they  are  not  assisted 
when  they  come  out  of  prison,  will  look  upon  society  only  as  an 
enemy,  and  one  who  was  filled  with  remorse  at  having  stolen 
twenty  francs  comes  not  to  be  dismayed  at  burglary  and 
murder. 

§  190.  Deportation 

There  is  in  Europe  a  party  which  see  in  deportation  the 
only  remedy  against  crime. ^  It  has  been  asserted  that  a  great 
part  of  the  flourishing  American  colonies,  and  ancient  Rome 
itself,  owed  their  origin  to  a  kind  of  penal  immigration.  This 
is  an  historical  error.  For  Rome  it  is  enough  to  recall  the 
immortal  pages  of  Virgil;  and  as  for  America,  we  must  re- 
member that  if  the  third  expedition  of  Columbus  was  made  up 
of  malefactors,  among  whom,  however,  were  reckoned  many 
heretics  and  adventurers,  in  the  first  and  second  only  men  of 
honor  took  part.  Under  James  II  deportation  was  forbidden; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  many  of  the  colonies  of  North  America 
owed  their  origin  to  very  respectable  men,  like  the  Quakers  of 
Penn  and  Fox.  From  the  influence  of  transported  convicts 
in  Australia  Victoria,  South  Australia,  and  New  Zealand  must 
be  altogether  excluded;  and  if  New  South  Wales  and  Tas- 
mania owe  their  origin  to  transportation,  it  is  a  great  error  to 
suppose  that  they  owe  their  prosperity  to  it.  This  is  so  true 
that  the  great  philanthropists,  Howard  and  Benthara,  pro- 
tested against  transportation  almost  immediately,  and  shortly 
afterward  the  colonists  themselves  did  the  same;  so  that  in 
1828  its  abolition  was  voted  by  Parhament.  The  prosperity 
of  Australia  is  due  to  its  fertile  meadows  and  the  trade  in  wool, 
which  has  brought  in  crowds  of  free  men.  The  wealth  of  Mel- 
bourne and  Sydney  began  just  when  the  tr&,nsportation  of 
convicts  ceased. 

In  New  South  Wales  the  population  increased  only  at  the 

*  Beltrani-Scalia,  "Rivista  di  Disciplina  Carceraria,"  1872-74;  Tissot,. 
"Introduction  au  Droit  P^nal,"  1874. 


§  190]  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS  347 

rate  of  2000  persons  a  year  from  1810  to  1830,  when  transpor- 
tation was  at  its  height;  while  from  1839  to  1848  the  exporta- 
tion of  wool  increased  from  7  to  23  milhon  pounds,  and  the 
population  from  114,000  to  220,000,  although  transportation 
had  ceased  in  1840.  While  it  lasted,  brigandage  raged  on  a 
large  scale.  The  convicts  did  not  work,  and  those  who  were 
employed  in  the  construction  of  roads  had  to  be  watched  by 
guards  and  soldiers,  who  treated  them  worse  than  beasts,  chased 
them  with  dogs,  chained  and  flogged  them.  Those  who  had  been 
set  free  sold  the  land  the  government  had  given  them  for  the 
purpose  of  starting  them  at  honest  work,  and  joined  their  old 
accompUces  in  new  crimes.  We  need  not  be  astonished  that 
the  mortality  of  this  part  of  the  population  reached  40%,  while 
that  of  the  free  population  was  hardly  5%;  and  if  the  criminality 
in  England  was  1  to  850  inhabitants,  in  New  South  Wales  it 
was  1  to  104,  and  in  Van  Dieman's  Land  1  to  48.  Finally,  while 
the  crimes  of  violence  in  England  were  to  other  crimes  as  1  to 
8,  in  New  South  Wales  they  reached  50%.  In  1805-06  with 
an  average  deportation  of  360  prisoners  a  year,  there  were 
2649  convictions  in  England;  and  in  1853-56,  with  an  average- 
of  4108  deportations,  there  were  15,048  convictions.  These 
facts  show  what  sort  of  advantages  are  to  be  looked  for  from 
deportation,  without  counting  the  enormous  expense  and  the 
crimes  which  criminals  sometimes  commit  in  order  to  be  de- 
ported. In  1852,  in  fact,  there  were  3000  criminals  in  France 
who  asked  to  be  deported,  and,  what  is  worse,  some  of  them 
committed  new  crimes  to  attain  their  end.^  While  in  England 
the  expense  of  supporting  a  delinquent  is  £10,  this  expense 
rises  in  the  colonies  to  £26,  £35,  and  £40. 

In  Guiana  there  is  supposed  to  be  a  profit  of  £1511  with 
deportation;  but  dividing  this  by  the  number  of  days  of  work 
it  is  reduced  to  54  centimes  a  head  in  1865,  and  to  48  centimes 
in  1866;  and  there  are  5%  of  escapes  and  40%,  of  deaths  re- 
corded. Each  criminal  costs  1100  francs  a  year,  three  times 
as  much  as  a  convict  in  prison;  and  the  transportation  cost 
reaches  400  francs.^    By  the  French  law  of  May  30,  1874,  the 

1  Stevens,  "Reg.  des  Etabliss.,"  1877.  /  n^-„;npllpfl " 

2  BonneviUe  de  Marsangy  "  D ' Amdhovation  des  Lois    CnmmeUes, 
II,  95. 


348  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  190 

deported  convicts  were  to  be  employed  at  the  hardest  labor  of 
the  colony,  while  efforts  were  to  be  made  to  reform  them.  They 
were  given  the  means  of  living  honestly,  something  an  honest 
man  does  not  always  get.  A  savings  bank  subsidized  by  the 
government  was  started  for  them;  lands  of  the  best  quality, 
often  cleared,  were  given  them,  which  became  their  own  after 
five  years.  While  working  the  land  they  have  a  right  to  food, 
clothing,  agricultural  implements,^  and  hospital  care;  in  the 
case  of  married  persons,  the  wife  has  the  same  rights,  besides 
150  francs  at  the  time  of  marriage,  and  complete  furnishing. 
It  is  not  only  the  environment  that  is  changed,  for  everything 
that  would  occasion  a  relapse  into  crime  is  carefully  removed. 
But  we  know  that  while  a  change  of  surroundings  may  reform 
an  occasional  criminal,  it  has  no  effect  upon  real  born  criminals, 
who  make  up  the  greater  part  of  the  deported  convicts.  In 
fact,  according  to  official  reports,  —  and  the  officials  have  an 
interest  in  conceaUng  the  truth  —  we  see  crime  breaking  out 
again  in  plain  dayUght,  so  that  honest  men,  and  the  very  officials 
themselves  who  send  to  the  government  their  garbled  reports, 
are  often  the  victims  of  these  pretended  sheep  returned  to  the 
fold.  Thomas,  an  impartial  foreigner,  thus  describes  the 
situation  from  his  own  experience :  ^ 

".  .  .  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  the  degree  of  infamy  to 
which  they  have  come.  In  1884  one  of  the  criminals  tried  to 
cut  his  wife's  throat  after  having  been  married  to  her  for  48 
hours;  surprised  at  the  time,  he  afterw^ard  fled  to  the  natives, 
who  shot  him.  But  the  savages  themselves  are  often  the  vic- 
tims of  these  miserable  men.  Impunity  and  indulgence  have 
given  rise  to  real  anarchy,  to  a  veritable  hell  upon  earth." 

According  to  Mancelon,^  criminals  who  had  been  condemned 
to  death  at  least  three  times  were  finally  set  at  liberty.  A 
deported  convict  thus  described  to  Laurent  one  of  the  marriages 
which  the  governor,  M.  Pardon,  in  his  official  capacity  (1891), 
has  mentioned  with  so  much  admiration :  * 

1  "Circular  of  Ministers,"  Jan.  6,  1882. 

*  "Cannibals  and  Convicts,"  1886. 

*  "Les  Bagnes  et  la  Colonisation  Penale,"  1886. 
«  Laurent,  "Les  Habitues  des  Prisons,"  1890. 


§  190]  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS  349 

"I  was  present  on  the  Isle  of  Nou  at  a  curious  ceremony,  the 
marriage  of  two  of  my  fellow  prisoners.  The  bridegroom  was 
a  man  sentenced  to  five  years  at  hard  labor  for  a  murder.  To 
choose  his  wife  he  had  gone  to  the  convent  of  Bourail  and 
selected  an  old  prostitute,  sentenced  to  eight  years  at  hard  labor, 
for  giving  aid  in  robbing  and  murdering  a  man  in  his  own  house. 
The  marriage  took  place.  After  the  mass  the  priest  spoke  to 
the  newly  married  couple  of  pardon,  redemption,  and  the 
forgetting  of  injuries,  but  the  wife  kept  repeating  in  her  argot, 
'Ah,  how  he  wearies  me!' 

"After  mass  a  very  'wet'  banquet  took  place.  The  witness 
drank  so  much  that  while  he  slept  he  was  robbed  of  his  pocket- 
book.  The  husband  also  became  so  intoxicated  that  the  next 
morning  he  awoke  without  his  pocket-book,  with  a  black  eye, 
and  without  news  of  his  wife,  who  was  absent  until  the  next 
morning  with  another  convict.  He  took  it  in  good  part,  however, 
and  even  found  it  natural. 

"Although  married,  this  woman  became  the  concubine  of 
freed  convicts,  and  of  the  prisoners  themselves.  One  day  she 
lured  an  Arab,  whom  she  knew  to  be  rich,  into  a  secluded  spot, 
w^here  her  husband  robbed  him  and  then  killed  him  with  a 
hatchet;  but  the  wife,  horrified,  denounced  the  murderer,  and 
he  was  condemned  to  death.    Thus  ended  this  happy  match." 

In  the  monograph,  "Travaux  Forces  Fin  de  Siecle,"  *  we  are 
told  of  a  certain  DevillepoLx,  condemned  to  hard  labor  for  life 
for  two  rapes  upon  minors  followed  by  two  homicides,  who 
married  as  his  second  wife  an  infanticide.  Some  time  after- 
ward he  set  fire  to  the  houses  of  his  neighbors  without  reason, 
and  also  burned  a  plantation.  He  prostituted  his  wife  to  the 
first  comer  in  order  to  live  more  comfortably.  He  was  con- 
demned to  death. 

"In  1881  the  minister  of  marine  complained  that  of  7000 
persons,  without  counting  freed  convicts,  only  360  could  be 
employed  upon  the  construction  of  the  roads.  All  the  others 
were  wandering  about  at  random,  entirely  unrestrained,  nomin- 
ally taking  up  land  or  working  for  private  individuals.  Thus 
there  was  no  more  discipline  or  prison.  In  1880  there  were  only 
640  to  700  escapes;  in  1889  these  had  reached  the  constant 
figure  of  800. 

"The  notorious  bandit,  Brodeau,  who  had  escaped  several 
times,  killed  an  old  woman  and  devoured  a  portion  of  her  flesh. 

1  "Nouvelle  Revue,"  1890. 


350  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§190 

Under  the  knife  of  the  guillotine  he  mocked  at  the  law,  and  with 
a  loud  voice  himself  gave  the  signal  for  the  knife  to  fall. 

"Besides,  who  could  restrain  those  depraved  individuals, 
when  they  perceived  that  the  prison,  that  scarecrow  of  the 
criminal  codes,  was  nothing  but  a  jest? 

"The  council  of  war  loses  its  time  with  sentencing  and  re- 
sentencing convicts  already  condemned  to  life  imprisonment. 
Additional  sentences  have  been  given  of  10,  20,  100,  and  200 
years  in  prison. 

"In  Noumea  there  are  individuals  who  have  been  condemned 
to  death  three  times  and  afterwards  pardoned  and  left  at  liberty 
for  the  rest  of  their  lives. 

"In  1891  the  maritime  tribunal  of  Noumea  condemned  to 
death  a  convict  named  Jamicol,  who,  in  consequence  of  sentences 
incurred  in  the  colony,  would  not  have  been  freed  before  the  year 
2036,  that  is,  in  145  years! 

"  A  woman  named  Mace,  sent  to  New  Caledonia  after  having 
killed  her  two  children,  married,  got  a  land  grant,  and  killed 
another  child.  An  old  potter  of  Bourail,  who  had  been  sen- 
tenced for  the  rape  of  an  older  daughter,  was  rejoined  by  his 
wife,  his  victim,  and  by  another  younger  daughter.  He  drove 
the  older  to  the  lowest  prostitution,  prepared  the  younger  for 
the  same  mode  of  life,  and  went  on  with  his  flourishing  pottery 
trade."  ^ 

The  effects  of  such  colonial  organization  are  evident.  A 
quarter  of  a  century  has  already  elapsed  since  the  arrival  of 
the  first  convoy  of  convicts  in  New  Caledonia.  Yet  there  are 
still  no  roads  there;  Noumea  has  neither  sewers,  embankments, 
nor  docks;  in  a  short  time  all  the  land  will  be  in  the  hands  of 
incendiaries  and  murderers.  We  can  see  from  this  how  much 
confidence  ought  to  be  placed  in  reports  of  inspectors  who 
maintain  that  "the  holders  of  the  land-grants  are  true  farmers, 
some  of  whom  might  with  perfect  safety  be  pardoned  and  set 
at  liberty." 

I  have  reported  the  facts  scrupulously  in  order  that  they 
may  serve  to  counterbalance  the  assertion  that  is  constantly 
being  made:  "Change  the  environment,  and  the  criminal 
disappears."  Now,  here  everything  is  changed,  race,  climate, 
conditions  —  all  the  causes  of  crime  are  removed  —  and  in 
spite  of  everything  the  born  criminal  continues  his  series  of 
crimes,  while  the  honest  man  pays  the  expenses!  What  better 
'  Laurent,  op.  dt. 


§  191]  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS  361 

proof  could  we  have  of  the  supremacy  of  organic  action  over 
environment ! 

These  facts  show  further  a  long  series  of  deceptions  on  the 
part  of  bureaucrats,  who  represent  the  most  deplorable  measures 
as  excellent.  In  fact,  M.  Pardon,  the  governor  of  New  Cale- 
donia, in  his  report  for  1891,  praised  the  system  in  use  there, 
and  stated  that  he  had  employed  1200  convicts  upon  the  roads 
and  placed  630  at  agricultural  labor  with  the  farmers,  declaring 
that  they  were  watched  by  the  guards  without  any  danger.  The 
holders  of  land-grants  had  increased  to  123;  the  penalties  were 
respected,  and  did  not  even  arouse  feelings  of  revolt;  while 
industry  prospered.^  The  truth,  he  should  have  added,  is  that, 
aside  from  the  enormous  expenses  for  the  support  of  the  crimi- 
nals (not  less  than  900  francs  a  head),  he  fails  to  take  into 
account  the  great  proportion  of  the  criminals  who  commit 
their  crimes  only  to  get  themselves  sent  to  this  Eden. 

In  order  to  understand  the  economic  harm  done  by  penal 
colonies,  it  is  necessary  to  note  that  the  delinquents  who  are 
not  peasants  are  more  than  half  of  the  criminals  deported. 
Now  it  is  not  at  25  or  30  years  of  age  that  one  learns  a  new 
trade;  moreover,  the  sluggishness,  the  repugnance  to  work, 
which  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  born  criminal,  is  some- 
thing which  we  can  hardly  hope  to  see  bettered  in  a  hotter 
climate,  itself  an  incentive  to  crime,  nor  in  the  neighborhood 
of  savage  populations,  whose  tendencies  are  so  nearly  allied  to 
those  of  the  born  criminal.  It  is,  then,  natural  that  recidivism 
should  increase  instead  of  diminish;  for  we  know  that  this  is 
the  rule  and  not  the  exception  with  the  born  criminal. 

It  is  advantageous  to  sentence  to  deportation,  therefore, 
only  occasional  criminals  and  criminals  by  passion.* 

§  191.   Surveillance 

All  those  of  us  who  know  anything  of  dehnquents  and  of  the 
police,  know  that  surveillance  occupies  a  large  part  of  the 
time  of  the  officers  of  public  safety,'  and  this,  with  an  expense 

1  "Bulletin  des  Prisons." 

2  See  Chapters  XII  and  XIII.  ..  .     „t^  „    ^  ,     •        j  11. 

3  G.  Curcio,  "Delle  Persone  Pregiudicate,"  in  "Delle  Colonic  e  deU 
Emigrazione  d'  Italiani  all'  Estero"  (Carpi),  Milan,  1876. 


352  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  191 

of  more  than  four  millions,  without  any  real  advantage;  for 
the  crimes  are  in  great  part  committed  by  the  persons  who  are 
being  watched.  But  the  surveillance  itself  is  a  cause  of  new 
crimes,  and  it  certainly  is  a  cause  of  the  distress  of  delinquents; 
for  by  denouncing  them  to  respectable  people  through  their 
personal  visits,  the  police  prevent  their  getting  or  keeping 
employment.  Crime,  as  Ortolan  has  truly  said,^  leads  to  sur- 
veillance; and  this  prevents  those  who  are  watched  from  find- 
ing work,  a  circle  that  is  even  more  fatal  when  they  are  sent 
to  a  residence  far  from  their  native  country. 

"The  penalty  of  surveillance,"  says  Fregier,  "has  accom- 
plished nothing  since  its  introduction,  it  offers  no  guarantee, 
and  it  holds  out  the  promise  of  a  security  that  does  not  exist."  ^ 

Add  to  this  the  enormous  number  of  arrests,  the  loss  to  the 
government  on  account  of  the  expense  of  imprisonment,  the 
arbitrary  arrests  for  forgetting  to  salute  an  oflScer,  for  address- 
ing a  suspect,  or  for  being  out  a  few  minutes  after  hours,  which 
reduce  these  unfortunates  to  the  position  of  slaves  in  the  hands 
of  the  police  (Curcio.)  "Enemies,"  says  MachiavelH,  "must 
be  conciliated  or  exterminated."  By  surveillance  we  do 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  we  only  irritate  them;  and  it  is 
to  this,  or  little  more  than  this,  that  all  our  institutions  for 
the  repression  of  crime  amount  in  the  end. 

*  "figments  de  Droit  Penal,"  chap.  7,  tit.  v. 

*  "Lea  Classes  Dangereuses,"  1868. 


CHAPTER  IX 

ABSURDITIES  AND  CONTRADICTIONS  IN  CRIMINAL  PROCEDURE 

§  192. 

OUR  methods  and  expedients  in  criminal  procedure  are  no 
better  than  we  have  seen  our  penal  institutions  to  be. 
Decisions  in  criminal  cases  are  nothing  more  than  a  game  of 
chance,  where  nothing  is  certain  but  the  publicity  which  leads 
to  new  crimes. 

§  193.  The  Jury 

The  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  verdicts  brought  in  by  juries 
in  different  years  and  in  different  countries  shows  the  ineflBciency 
of  the  institution.  Thus,  Cagliari  reckons  that  there  are  50% 
of  acquittals,  while  upper  Italy  shows  but  23%.^  Venice 
shows  a  difference  of  9%  to  15%  as  we  pass  from  the  small 
towns  to  the  large  ones.  "The  cultivated  classes,"  says  Tai- 
ani,  "are  never  represented  on  the  jury,"  and  in  fact  numerous 
cases  prove  to  us  only  too  clearly  the  complete  ignorance  of 
jurymen.  Thus  in  a  vote  with  regard  to  a  homicide  a  ballot 
was  found  on  which  was  written  "Yes  or  no."  It  was  counted 
in  favor  of  the  prisoner.  When  the  juror  was  asked  why  he 
had  written  so  strange  a  vote,  he  answered,  "Because  the 
ballot  had  printed  on  it,  *The  juror  must  answer:  yes  or  no.'  " 

There  is  no  guarantee  of  the  incorruptibility  of  the  juryman, 
who,  having  no  account  to  render  and  nothing  to  lose  by  an  ac- 
quittal, often  levies  tribute  upon  justice,  as  is  proved  by  numer- 
ous acquittals  secured  by  bribery  even  after  the  criminal  has 
confessed.  More  than  this,  the  jury  of  itself  is  a  cause  of 
popular  corruption.  Borghetti  2  notes  that  many  respectable 
peasants  are  corrupted  by  serving  on  the  jury,  and  he  adds: 
"It  is  the  arena  where  the  Mafia  achieves  its  triumphs."     More- 

^  Lavini,  "Del  Modo  con  cui  e  Amministrata  la  Giustizia,"  Venice, 
1875 

»  "Relaz.  della  Giunta  per  1'  Inchiesta  sulle  Condizioni  della  Sicilia." 


354  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  193 

over  the  injustice  towards  the  poor  that  springs  from  that 
corruption  is  a  great  cause  of  immorahty,  for  the  poor  accused 
person,  seeing  that  justice  is  quite  other  than  equal  for  all, 
believes  himself  almost  justified  in  indemnifying  himself  at  the 
expense  of  a  society  which  has  condemned  him,  and  regards 
his  sentence  as  unjust,  even  when  it  is  not. 

In  answer  to  those  who  maintain  that  juries  are  a  guarantee 
of  free  goverimaent,  we  may  recall  that  the  history  of  England 
shows  us  how  often  juries  change  their  opinion  according  to  the 
will  of  the  government.  But  besides,  what  has  this  argument 
to  do  with  cases  that  are  not  pohtical?  Furthermore,  in  those 
cases  where  the  government  remains  quite  indifferent,  public 
opinion,  to  which  the  most  respectable  juries  are  involuntarily 
subservient,  is  often  easily  misled  by  criminals  and  their  de- 
fenders. And  where  will  you  find  a  greater  tyranny  than  that 
of  ignorance?  "The  jury,"  writes  Pironti,  "often  acquits  the 
man,  who  steals  the  pubhc  money,  for  the  purpose  of  protest- 
ing against  the  government,  or  perhaps  acquits  a  criminal 
because  he  was  a  brave  soldier."  I  will  add  that  this  excessive 
mildness  in  dealing  with  criminals  leads  them  to  new  crimes; 
and  we  may  understand  why  in  a  brawl  a  comrade  of  the 
aggressor  said  to  him,  "Kill  him,  and  you  will  have  a  jury 
trial.  If  you  merely  wound  him,  you  will  go  to  the  police 
magistrate."  ^  Where  a  matter  must  above  all  be  decided  on 
its  merits  without  any  reference  to  feeling,  is  it  not  the  direct 
opposite  of  justice  to  leave  it  to  be  decided  by  popular  instinct, 
by  the  feeling  that  happens  to  predominate  in  the  crowd  at  the 
moment?  And  what  can  be  done  about  the  errors  of  the  jury, 
springing  often  from  causes  that  it  is  impossible  to  foresee,  as 
in  the  Galletti  case  in  Brescia,  where  a  blot  of  ink  upon  the 
"Yes"  of  a  juryman  caused  the  acquittal  of  a  man  who  ought 
to  have  been  condemned  to  death? 

It  is  vain  to  urge  in  support  of  the  jury  the  necessity  of 
modernizing  the  processes  of  justice,  as  well  as  other  institu- 
tions. The  jury  existed  already,  though  in  rudimentary  form, 
at  the  time  of  the  Twelve  Tables  and  the  Germanic  "Gerichte." 
It  is  just  as  modern  as  cremation,  —  that  pretended  innova- 
1  "Eco  Giudiziario,"  1878. 


§  193]     ABSURDITIES  IN  CRIMINAL  PROCEDURE         355 

tion  of  the  modern  pseudo-hygienists,  which  was  ah-eady  ancient 
in  the  time  of  Homer  —  and  quite  as  commendable  in  practice. 

Have  we  not  done  everything  to  bind  upon  magistrates  the 
duty  of  justifying  and  giving  the  reasons  of  their  decisions  and 
of  not  giving  them  in  the  form  of  oracles  —  this  notwithstanding 
the  guarantees  offered  by  their  past,  by  their  special  studies, 
by  their  experience,  and  by  the  fact  that  appeal  may  be  taken 
from  their  decisions?  And  then  we  think  we  have  discovered 
a  new  source  of  liberty  and  justice  in  permitting  men  without 
experience,  without  responsibility,  to  sentence  by  a  simple  yes 
or  no,  like  children  and  despots,  without  giving  any  reason  for 
their  acts;  and  in  Italy  we  aggravate  the  evil  by  decreeing 
that  this  irresponsible  sentence  shall  be  irrevocable  when  it  is 
in  favor  of  the  criminal,  and  only  subject  to  appeal  when  it  is 
against  him!  Every  magistrate  must  justify  the  condemna- 
tion or  acquittal  which  he  pronounces  for  Ubel,  theft,  or  assault. 
But  when  it  is  a  question  of  robbery  or  murder,  the  popular 
magistracy  gives  its  decision  without  any  other  guarantee  or 
reason  than  yes  or  no}  Worse  than  that,  the  juror  may  still 
more  easily  let  the  criminal  go  unpunished  by  casting  a  blank 
ballot,  which,  even  if  the  law  does  interpret  it  as  a  definite 
expression,  in  the  conscience  of  an  ignorant  juryman,  who  is 
inclined  to  make  mental  reservations,  is  always  a  compromise 
between  truth  and  injustice. 

If  even  those  precautions  prescribed  by  law  to  prevent  the 
inconveniences  of  the  jury  system  were  only  observed!  One 
of  the  most  important  assuredly  is  that  the  jury  shall  communi- 
cate with  no  one  until  they  have  pronounced  their  verdict. 
They  take  an  oath  to  observe  this  obligation,  but  in  reality,  as 
all  the  world  knows,  they  do  not  keep  it,  and  communicate, 
even  publicly,  with  the  counsel  for  the  defense.  Why,  on  the 
other  hand,  should  the  right  of  exclusion  without  cause  be 
given  to  the  defendant,  who  challenges  the  better  jurors  — 
just  those  who  by  their  honorable  character  and  their  intelli- 
gence would  be  most  capable  of  resisting  seduction  and  rhetoric? 
How  can  we  believe  that  an  ignorant  man  could  follow  a  trial 
like  that  at  Ancona,  in  which  147  witnesses  were  interrogated 
1  "Eco  Giudiziario,"  1875. 


356  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  193 

and  5000  questions  laid  before  the  jury?  Furthermore,  how 
shall  those  who  have  nothing  to  lose  by  acquitting  resist  threats 
of  death,  when  even  responsible  judges  allow  themselves  to  be 
intimidated?  And,  finally,  if  tried  judges,  if  an  assembly  of 
experts,  can  in  certain  crimes  hardly  disentangle  the  truth, 
which  can  only  be  understood  through  a  knowledge  of  toxi- 
cology, surgery,  and  psychiatry,  how  can  it  be  done  by  indi- 
viduals who  are  not  only  not  specialists  but  quite  ignorant  of 
any  science  whatever?  And  this  at  a  time  when  division  of 
labor  is  required  in  things  much  less  important  than  justice! 
Are  we  not  abandoning  to  chance  something  that  ought  to  be 
conducted  according  to  the  strictest  rules? 

Objection  is  made,  it  is  true,  that  the  average  number  of 
acquittals  in  jury  trials  is  no  larger  than  in  those  cases  decided 
by  the  judge.  But  this  objection  is  far  from  being  exact,  for 
the  average  in  some  regions  is  twice  as  great.  Even  if  it  were 
true,  there  is  a  great  difference  between  the  two  cases.  Before 
a  case  is  brought  to  trial  before  a  jury  it  has  already  been  sub- 
mitted to  a  long  series  of  tests  and  judgments  such  as  those 
of  the  praetor,  the  examining  judge,  the  royal  procurator,  the 
section  of  accusation,  the  president  of  the  court,  the  procurator 
general,  experts,  etc.  After  all  these  it  is  difficult  for  any  proof 
of  the  innocence  of  the  accused  person  to  arise.  Further,  it  is 
not  so  much  in  regard  to  number  as  to  quality  that  the  acquit- 
tals are  at  fault.  They  show  a  deplorable  generosity  toward 
murderers,  homicides,  and  those  guilty  of  insurrection;  and  also, 
by  an  unfortunate  perversion,  toward  forgers  and  persons  who 
steal  public  money,  a  fact  which  is  certainly  one  of  the  causes 
of  the  constant  increase  of  crimes  of  this  kind. 

The  objection  that  in  England  and  America  the  jury  system 
works  well  has  no  weight.  In  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  the  feeling 
for  justice  and  duty  does  not  fail  as  often  as  it  does  with  us. 
Further,  they  do  not  try  by  jury  those  who  have  con- 
fessed their  guilt,  while  with  us  these  cases,  which  amount 
to  half  the  total  number,  give  rise  to  the  greatest  scandals. 
Then  there  is  a  smaller  number  of  criminals  tried  by  jury 
in  England,  1  to  132,770  inhabitants,  while  in  Italy  there  is 
1   for  each   8931,  —  an  enormous   difference   not   sufficiently 


§  194]     ABSURDITIES  IN  CRIMINAL  PROCEDURE        357 

accounted  for  by  our  greater  criminality.  In  England,  moreover, 
in  many  cases  such  as  insurrections,  bankruptcies,  etc.,  there  are 
special  juries,  and  the  habeas  corpus  does  not  forbid  (as  some 
imagine)  preventive  arrests  by  the  police,  but  gives  the  accused 
the  right  to  secure  within  24  hours  the  intervention  of  the  magis- 
tracy (the  High  Court  of  London,  or  the  County  Court)  to 
decide  whether  his  detention  should  be  continued  or  revoked. 
In  all  difficult  cases  the  Coroner  calls  about  him  a  veritable 
jury  of  specialists,  physicians,  or  chemists.  The  jurors,  more- 
over, take  oath  to  conform  to  the  instructions  of  the  judge  with 
regard  to  the  law,  and  keep  the  oath  scrupulously,  thanks  to 
their  respect  for  the  law.  Public  opinion  in  England,  moreover, 
would  revolt  against  a  perjured  verdict  in  which  the  instructions 
of  the  judge  on  points  of  law  were  disregarded.  Besides  this  if 
the  verdict  appears  unjust,  the  judge  can  suspend  the  execution 
of  it,  at  least  until  it  has  been  sanctioned  by  his  colleagues.^ 
We  may  add  that  the  jury  cannot  leave  the  Court  House  until 
the  verdict  has  been  rendered,  a  measure  that  prevents  many 
bad  influences. 

But  even  in  England  the  jury  system  is  not  without  its  ob- 
jectors. As  early  as  the  time  of  Elizabeth  they  used  against  the 
jury  the  words  hurled  by  Cicero  against  corrupt  magistrates: 
"Quos  fames  magis  quam  fama  commoverit."  ^  And  in  1824 
the  "  Westminster  Review  "  attacked  the  jury  system  violently, 
and  went  so  far  as  to  call  it  the  phantom  of  justice. 

§  194.  Appeal 

"Injustice  makes  judgment  bitter,"  wrote  Bacon,  "delay 
turns  it  sour."  As  much  may  be  said  in  our  day,  when,  thanks 
to  appeals,  the  penalty  is  no  longer  either  prompt,  certain,  or 
severe.  And  whereas  the  judgment  of  the  trial  court  is  pre- 
ceded by  a  regular  and  complete  argument,  that  of  the  appellate 
court  is  based  merely  upon  a  written  statement  of  the  case 
often  very  irregularly  and  incompletely  drawn  up.  This  fatal 
edifice  is  crowned  by  the  most  ample  right  to  reverse  the  de- 
cisions of  the  lower  court,  not  based,  as  would  be  just  (and  as  is 

»  Glaser,  "Schwurgerichtliche  Erorterungen,"  Vienna,  1876. 
2  Who  are  more  influenced  by  hunger  than  by  good  repute. 


358  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  195 

the  practice  in  America,  England,  and  even  France)  upon  sub- 
stantial errors  and  errors  of  fact;  but  almost  always  upon  matters 
of  form,  on  account  of  which  a  very  costly  judgment  may  be 
reversed  for  a  simple  mistake  in  grammar  made  by  an  unfortu- 
nate clerk. 

§  195.  Pardon 

As  if  the  right  of  appeal  were  not  enough,  we  have  also  the 
right  of  pardon  so  profusely  employed  in  Italy  that  pardons 
are  here  a  hundred  times  as  numerous  as  they  are  in  France.^ 
Now,  how  can  we  reconcile  this  clemency  with  the  rarity  of  cases 
of  moral  reform?  Who  is  not  aware  that  criminals  Uberated 
after  having  passed  through  the  graduated  prison  system  (which 
is  much  more  of  a  test  than  simple  imprisonment)  still  give 
very  poor  results?  How  can  we  say  that  justice  is  equal  for 
all,  that  it  is  destined  to  bring  the  disturbed  juridical  condi- 
tion into  equiUbrium,  and  that  it  is  based  upon  fixed,  immuta- 
ble laws,  free  from  all  personal  influence,  when  all  that  is  needed 
to  blot  out  the  whole  thing  is  a  simple  stroke  of  the  pen,  —  the 
signature  of  a  man  who  may  be  the  best  man  in  the  country, 
but  is  after  all  only  a  man?  The  system  of  pardons  is  founded 
upon  the  supposition  that  the  right  to  punish  exists  only  in 
the  mil  of  the  ruler.  "But  we  use  it  to  mitigate  justice  when  it 
is  too  severe,"  answers  Friedrich.  Very  well,  if  that  is  so,  you 
have  not  true  justice,  and  you  ought  to  change  its  methods. 
Says  Filangeri:^  "Every  pardon  granted  to  a  criminal  is  a 
derogation  of  the  law;  for  if  the  pardon  is  just,  the  law  is  bad, 
and  if  the  law  is  just,  the  pardon  is  an  attack  upon  the  law. 
By  the  first  hypothesis,  laws  should  be  abolished,  and  by  the 
second,  pardons."  We  may  add  as  a  last  consideration  that 
pardons  are  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  equality  that  animates 
modern  society;  for  when  it  favors  the  rich,  as  is  too  often  the 
case,  it  makes  the  poor  suspect  that  there  is  no  justice  for  them. 
Rousseau's  words  in  this  connection  may  be  remembered:  "Fre- 
quent pardons  atmounce  that  crimes  will  soon  have  no  further 
need  of  them,  and  everyone  knows  whither  that  leads." 

*  "Relazione  del  Ministero  di  Grazia  e  Giustizia,"  1875. 
«  "La  Scienza  della  Legislazione,"  Bk.  Ill,  Pt.  iv,  Ch.  57. 


§  196]     ABSURDITIES  IN  CRIMINAL  PROCEDURE         359 

§  196.   Criminological  Prejudices 

It  is  still  worse  that  there  should  be  instilled  into  judicial 
practice  a  series  of  prejudices  which  make  every  judgment 
useless.  We  deplore,  for  example,  the  principle  that  when  there 
is  a  doubt  as  to  the  intent  of  the  criminal,  he  must  be  presumed 
to  have  had  the  less  evil  intent;  and  that  when  we  cannot  prove 
which  of  two  crimes  he  was  aiming  at,  we  must  always  presume 
that  it  was  the  less  serious.  Now  it  is  the  exact  contrary  of 
this  that  is  the  case  with  born  criminals.  The  law,  then,  by 
following  an  hypothesis  that  is  the  direct  opposite  of  the  fact, 
endangers  the  safety  of  society. 

But  it  is  stiU  worse  when  the  law  is  more  lenient  with  at- 
tempted crimes,  when  it  denies  the  intention,  even  where  the 
criminal  has  betrayed  it  by  his  threats  and  by  the  steps  which  he 
has  taken  to  put  it  into  execution.  Thus,  one  who  administers 
a  substance  that  he  believes  to  be  poisonous,  when  it  is  not,  is 
guilty  from  the  point  of  view  of  common  sense,  which  does  not 
stop  for  the  magic  formulas  of  the  old  jurists;  for  he  is  as  dan- 
gerous as  if  he  had  administered  a  real  poison,  the  more  so 
since  we  know  the  pertinacity  with  which  poisoners  repeat 
their  crimes  on  a  large  scale.  To  take  the  opposite  position  is 
virtually  to  insist  on  seeing  the  victim  quite  dead  before  taking 
steps  to  protect  him.  This  is  to  rob  ourselves,  through  love  of 
abstract  theories,  of  a  practical  and  concrete  means  of  protec- 
tion, —  so  much  the  more  since  we  know  the  tendency  of  the 
born  criminal  to  divulge  his  own  crimes  before  committing  them.^ 
Further,  it  is  absurd  that  our  laws  should  be  milder  towards 
recidivists  who  do  not  fall  again  into  the  same  crimes.  They 
are  no  less  dangerous  on  that  account,  but  quite  the  contrary. 
The  English  statistics  show  that  those  who  have  committed 
crimes  against  persons,  upon  relapsing,  commit  more  especially 
crimes  against  property,  in  order  to  escape  justice.  The  crim- 
inal who  always  relapses  into  the  same  crimes  is  almost  always 
a  semi-imbecile,  perhaps  less  dangerous.  For  such  the  increase 
of  the  penalty  is  less  urgent;  while  the  man,  who  at  short  inter- 
vals commits  several  kinds  of  crimes,  shows  greater  intelligence 
1  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  Pt.  3. 


360  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  196 

and  greater  versatility  in  crime.  Such  were  Lacenaire,  Gaspa- 
roni,  Desrues,  and  Holmes,  who  knew  how  to  combine  theft, 
swindling,  and  poisoning,  with  forgery  and  assassination.  Men 
of  this  sort  are  the  most  dangerous,  and  the  hardest  to  recognize 
and  arrest. 

Again,  the  importance  that  is  assigned  to  public  trials  is  an 
error. 

"  The  public  trial  is  almost  always  only  a  useless  and  often 
dangerous  repetition  of  the  recorded  results  of  the  preliminary 
investigation;  for  the  witnesses  simply  repeat  their  depositions, 
which  are  already  in  the  record.  Now  it  is  difficult  for  the 
memory  not  to  become  confused  before  an  imposing  tribunal, 
where  the  crowd  is  annoying  and  the  lawyers  ask  captious,  or 
even  threatening,  questions ;  while  it  is  much  easier  to  recollect 
and  recount  a  fact  exactly  in  a  small  room  before  two  or  three 
persons  only."  ^ 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  arguments  of  prosecution  and 
defence,  —  and  this  with  the  more  reason  because  the  written 
argument,  which  is  an  immense  advance  on  the  spoken  one,  is 
permanent,  and  the  memory  for  words  is  much  weaker  than 
that  for  things.  According  to  the  experiments  of  Miinsterberg 
and  Bigham,  the  average  of  errors  of  memory  is  greater  for  the 
auditory  series  (31.6%)  than  it  is  for  the  visual  series  (20.5%). 
The  vaunted  oral  trial  is,  then,  absolutely  contrary  to  modern 
progress,  however  much  it  may  have  been  regarded  as  one  of 
the  pillars  of  justice. 

Finally,  when  we  cannot  clearly  prove  that  the  person  accused 
is  a  recidivist,  or  even  when  his  crime  has  been  committed  in 
youth,  we  should  at  least  take  account  of  all  his  evil  antecedents, 
in  order  to  class  him  among  suspects.  What  we  want  to  arrive 
at  is  the  degree  of  fear  with  which  the  individual  must  be  in- 
spired to  keep  him  from  doing  harm,  and  if  the  legislator  does 
not  believe  that  anthropological  and  psychological  character- 
istics may  be  of  service  to  him  in  sohang  the  question,  he  ought 
not,  at  least,  to  reject  demonstrated  criminological  facts. 

^  Ferrero,  "Lea  Lois  Psychologiques  de  Symbolisme,"  1890. 


§  197]     ABSURDITIES  IN  CRIMINAL  PROCEDURE         361 

§  197.  Erroneous  Theories 

There  are  many  jurists,  who  are  deeply  versed  in  scientific 
matters  and  in  the  current  of  the  scientific  movement  with  re- 
gard to  the  criminal,  who  have  not  been  able  to  gauge  its  depth 
accurately  for  want  of  physiological  ideas  or  of  direct  contact. 
These  men  have  maintained  that  the  great  numbers  of  insane 
and  feeble-minded  to  be  found  among  criminals,  and  consequently 
the  limited  responsibility  of  many  criminals  for  their  crimes,  lead 
inevitably  to  the  reduction  of  the  penalty.  They  do  not  under- 
stand that  the  new  anthropological  notions,  while  diminishing 
the  guilt  of  the  born  criminal,  imposes  upon  us  at  the  same  time 
the  duty  of  prolonging  his  sentence,  because  the  more  irrespon- 
sible criminals  are  the  more  they  are  to  be  dreaded,  since  their 
innate  and  atavistic  criminal  tendencies  can  be  neutralized  only 
by  selection  and  sequestration.  These  tendencies  are  like  a 
swelling  wave,  which  is  turned  back  upon  itself  when  it  encoun- 
ters a  strong  dike,  but  which  sweeps  on  and  becomes  threaten- 
ing if  nothing  checks  it.  Our  jurists  have  not  imitated  the 
Dutch,  but  have  thought  that  they  check  the  evil  by  lowering 
the  dikes  more  and  more;  hence  the  increasing  tendency  to  give 
every  opportunity  of  defense  to  the  criminal  and  to  facilitate 
pardons,  while  nothing  is  done  to  increase  the  security  of  society 
and  the  certainty  of  the  repression  of  crime.  Now,  if  a  general, 
relying  upon  the  power  of  philosophy,  allowed  himself  to  be 
guided  solely  by  that,  or  by  an  abstract  strategy,  founded  upon 
the  history  of  ancient  battles,  without  regard  for  modern  bal- 
listics, is  it  not  certain  that  he  would  conduct  his  unfortunate 
soldiers  to  an  inevitable  death.''  Now,  penal  justice  requires  at 
least  as  much  practical  knowledge  as  does  military  strategy. 
Metaphysics  in  this  matter  can  be  only  a  negative  resource, 
yet  the  practical  results  must  often  depend  upon  the  opinion  of 
persons,  venerable  indeed  but  inclined  to  substitute  metaphysics 
for  strategy,  who  dream  with  open  eyes  of  free-will  independent 
of  matter  and  of  a  right  to  punish  based  not  upon  pressing  social 
necessity  but  upon  abstract  violations  of  juridical  order.  Not 
only  do  they  not  think  of  eliminating  the  true  causes  of  crime 
(such  as  alcoholism,  associations  of  children,  etc.),  but,  by  intro- 


362  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  198 

ducing  precipitately  all  the  innovations  that  the  civilized  world 
has  contrived  in  favor  of  the  criminal,  they  forget  the  pre- 
cautions necessary  to  mitigate  the  evil  consequences  of  these 
(intermediate  institutions  for  conditional  liberation,  etc.),  and 
they  forget,  finally,  the  new  means  devised  for  the  defense  of 
society. 

It  is  also  to  be  deplored  that  the  high-priests  of  justice  regard 
the  form  of  procedure  of  more  importance  than  the  protection 
of  society;  so  that  it  has  passed  into  a  proverb  that  the  forms 
more  than  the  substance  of  the  procedure  are  the  supreme 
guarantee  for  both  parties,  and  that  "forma  dat  esse  rei,"  — 
four  words  that  are  the  greatest  proof  of  human  blindness  in 
juridical  matters. 

§  198.   Causes  of  this  State  of  Things 

The  cause  of  this  fatal  retrogession  toward  theory  is  to  be 
sought,  first  of  all,  in  that  law  of  inertia  and  exaggerated  con- 
servatism by  means  of  which  a  man,  when  he  has  been  drawn 
along  by  extraordinary  circumstances  or  by  bold  and  fortunate 
rebels,  turns  back  with  terror  from  every  change,  however 
simple  and  logical;  and  if  in  some  cases  men  submit  to  the 
change,  notwithstanding  their  repugnance,  it  is  because  the 
time  is  so  ripe,  and  the  innovation  so  apt,  that  they  are  carried 
along  in  spite  of  themselves  and  forced  to  accept  it.  But  here, 
as  in  reUgion  and  philosophy,  the  truth  is  hidden  by  formulas, 
whose  mystic  and  imposing  appearance  prevents  the  discovery 
of  their  insubstantial  character.  Whoever,  with  uplifted  re- 
ligious feelings,  hears  for  the  first  time  rabbis  or  brahmins  re- 
citing mysteriously  their  Hebrew  or  Sanscrit  prayers,  attaches 
to  them  a  profound  significance,  whereas  if  translated  into  the 
vulgar  tongue  they  would  appear  quite  simple.  In  the  same 
way  the  public  does  not  understand  the  legal  vocabulary,  and 
finds  the  jurist  the  more  profound  the  less  it  understands  him. 
Often  jurists  do  the  same,  and  think  more  of  themselves,  the 
more  they  entangle  themselves  in  their  hieroglyphics.  We 
understand  from  this  why  it  is  that  the  public  cannot  take 
jurists  seriously  when  they  affirm,  for  example,  that  to  author- 


§  198]     .\BSURDITIES  IN  CREVHNAL  PROCEDURE         363 

ize  another  person  to  commit  a  crime  is  not  to  be  guilty  of  an 
overt  act;  or  that  when  a  convict's  second  offense  is  different 
from  the  first  he  is  not  a  recidivist. 

Ferrero  finds  another  cause  for  these  errors,^  in  ideo-emotional 
inactivity,  in  the  tendency  of  the  human  mind  to  reduce  to  a 
minimum  the  number  of  mental  associations  necessary  for  any 
work  whatever.  In  practice,  then,  the  literal  interpretation  of 
the  law  prevails  over  all  considerations  of  justice. 

"  This  is  the  case  with  the  bureaucrary  of  great  governments. 
We  know  that  the  most  common  vice  of  this  class  of  function- 
aries is  the  habit  of  applying  Uterally  the  rules  and  laws  given 
for  their  guidance;  whHe  these  can  be  but  the  imperfect  inclica- 
tion  of  the  will  of  the  law-makers,  who,  not  being  able  to  foresee 
everything,  can  only  lay  down  general  rules.  The  official  ought 
to  interpret  these  general  rules  according  to  the  particidar 
case,  but,  instead,  the  letter  of  the  rule  becomes  standard, 
truth,  and  even  reason  itself.  The  employee  of  a  private  estab- 
lishment, with  an  eye  to  his  own  interests,  does  not  let  himself 
so  easily  fall  into  the  habit  of  carrying  out  a  general  rule  with- 
out reflection,  but  interprets  the  directions  he  receives  accord- 
ing to  the  circumstances  of  the  case." 

Now,  what  happens  to  codified  laws,  which  are  supposed  to 
serve  merely  to  guide  the  magistrate  in  particular  cases,  is  that 
they  become  justice  to  him  even  when  applied  to  the  letter.  To 
decide  conscientiously  the  judge  ought  to  make  himself  a  per- 
sonal criterion  for  the  special  case  that  he  has  under  his  eyes, 
and  judge  it  according  to  the  general  spirit  that  emanates  from 
the  written  law.  The  Roman  jurisconsults  also  recognized  that 
the  civil  law  needed  to  be  supplemented  by  what  they  called  the 
natural  law,  which  was  nothing  else  than  the  expression  of  that 
feeling  of  justice  that  revolts  against  the  application  of  general 
rules  to  particular  cases  to  which  they  are  not  adapted.  But 
all  this  requires  an  intense  intellectual  effort,  a  fatiguing  labor 
accompanied  by  a  tormenting  sense  of  responsibility.  It  is 
much  easier  and  more  convenient  to  apply  the  general  directions 
of  the  law  by  deducing  their  logical  consequences.  As  soon  as 
the  mind  has  become  accustomed  to  this  way  of  working,  a 
professional  ideo-emotional  stagnation  is  produced,  which  leads 
1  "Les  Lois  Psychologiques  du  Syxnbolisme,"  supra. 


364  CRBIE:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§  198 

the  judge  to  consider  the  Hteral  application  of  the  law  as  his 
whole  duty.  He  soon  comes  to  exclude  every  collateral  idea 
that  might  lead  to  an  equitable  solution  of  the  question.  The 
amount  of  injury  suffered  by  the  victim  and  the  causes  which 
brought  about  the  crime  are  not  in  any  way  taken  into  account. 
These  considerations  help  us  understand  why  the  sciences 
all  began  with  the  deductive  method.  Even  the  physical  sci- 
ences, which  from  the  nature  of  their  subject  would  naturally 
hold  themselves  closer  to  nature,  started  with  deduction.  Prim- 
itive physics  and  chemistry,  for  example,  consisted  of  a  series 
of  deductions  drawn  by  force  of  logic  from  a  principle  established 
by  the  observation  of  facts  at  random.  It  was  only  later  that 
men  came  to  recognize  the  fact  that  to  learn  the  laws  of  nature  it 
is  necessary  to  reason  less  and  to  observe  more.  In  the  begin- 
ning pure  logic  was  preferred  to  observation  and  experience, 
because  it  was  a  less  fatiguing  psychological  process,  exacting 
the  presence  of  a  smaller  number  of  intellectual  elements  in  the 
mind. 

"The  employment  of  pure  logic  is,  then,  the  effect  of  an 
ideo-emotional  inactivity  proper  to  the  period  of  infancy,  which 
appears  in  the  period  of  old  age  by  the  well-known  law  of  degen- 
eracy and  atavism.  What  is  the  science  of  the  Middle  Ages 
but  an  invasion  of  Greek  subtilty  into  the  field  which  the  thought 
of  antiquity  properly  submitted  to  the  method  of  observation.'* 
Just  so  the  absolutism  of  the  deductive  method  in  modern 
juridical  science  is  a  sign  of  decrepitude.  The  law  of  ideo- 
emotional  inactivity  explains  to  us  why  so  often  the  law 
of  rude  and  barbarous  peoples  is  distinguished  by  a  certain 
sound  common  sense,  as  compared  with  the  marvelously  logical 
but  marvelously  absurd  subtilties  of  the  law  of  the  most  civil- 
ized peoples."  ^ 

*  Ferrero,  "Les  Lois  Psychologiques  du  Symbolisme,"  Paris,  1894. 


iJart  Cftree 
SYNTHESIS  AND  APPLICATION 

CHAPTER  I 

ATAVISM   AND   EPILEPSY   IN   CRIME   AND   IN   PUNISHMENT 

§  199. 

A  LL  that  I  have  set  forth  in  the  present  book  and  in  those 
-^*>  which  preceded  it  (Vol.  I  and  II  of  the  "  Homme  Criminel ") 
proves  clearly  the  insecurity  of  the  ancient  criminological  scaf- 
folding. Have  I  succeeded  in  substituting  a  more  solid  edifice.?* 
If  pride  in  a  long  and  painful  task  has  not  bhnded  me,  I  think 
that  I  can  answer  in  the  aflSrmative.  The  fundamental  pro- 
position undoubtedly  is  that  we  ought  to  study  not  so  much 
the  abstract  crime  as  the  criminal. 

§  200.  Atavism 

The  born  criminal  shows  in  a  proportion  reaching  33%  nu- 
jmerous  specific  characteristics  that  are  almost  always  atavistic. 
Ijrhose  who  have  followed  us  thus  far  have  seen  that  many  of 
the  characteristics  presented  by  savage  races  are  very  often 
found  among  born  criminals.  Such,  for  example,  are:  the  slight 
development  of  the  pilar  system;  low  cranial  capacity;  retreat- 
ing forehead;  highly  developed  frontal  sinuses;  great  frequency 
of  Wormian  bones;  early  closing  of  the  cranial  sutures;  the 
simplicity  of  the  sutures;  the  thickness  of  the  bones  of  the  skull; 
enormous  development  of  the  maxillaries  and  the  zygomata; 
prognathism;  obhquity  of  the  orbits;  greater  pigmentation  of 
the  skin;  tufted  and  crispy  hair;  and  large  ears.  To  these  we 
may  add  the  lemurine  appendix;  anomalies  of  the  ear;  dental 
diastemata;  great  agility;  relative  insensibility  to  pain;  dullness 
of  the  sense  of  touch;  great  visual  acuteness;  abihty  to  recover 
quickly  from  wounds;  blunted  affections;  precocity  as  to  sensual 


366  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§200 

pleasures;  ^  greater  resemblance  between  the  sexes;  greater  in- 
corrigibility of  the  woman  (Spencer);  laziness;  absence  of  re- 
morse; impulsiveness;  physiopsychic  excitability;  and  esjje- 
cially  improvidence,  which  sometimes  appears  as  courage  and 
again  as  recklessness  changing  to  cowardice.  Besides  these 
there  is  great  vanity;  a  passion  for  gambling  and  alcoholic 
drinks;  violent  but  fleeting  passions;  superstition;  extraordinary 
sensitiveness  with  regard  to  one's  own  personality;  and  a  special 
conception  of  God  and  morahty.  Unexpected  analogies  are 
met  even  in  small  details,  as,  for  example,  the  improvised  rules 
of  criminal  gangs ;  the  entirely  personal  influence  of  the  chiefs ;  ^ 
the  custom  of  tattooing;  the  not  uncommon  cruelty  of  their 
games;  the  excessive  use  of  gestures;  the  onomatopoetic  lan- 
guage with  personification  of  inanimate  things;  and  a  special 
literature  recalUng  that  of  heroic  times,  when  crimes  were  cele- 
brated and  the  thought  tended  to  clothe  itself  in  rhythmic 
form. 

This  atavism  explains  the  diffusion  of  certain  crimes,  such  as 
the  pederasty  and  infanticide,  whose  extension  to  whole  com- 
panies we  could  not  explain  if  we  did  not  recall  the  Romans,  the 
Greeks,  the  Chinese,  and  the  Tahitians,  who  not  only  did  not 
regard  them  as  crimes,  but  sometimes  even  practiced  them  as 
a  national  custom.  Garofalo  has  admirably  summed  up  the 
psychical  characteristics  of  the  born  criminal  as  being  the  ab- 
sence of  the  feelings  of  shame,  honor,  and  pity,  which  are  those 
that  are  lacking  in  the  savage  also.'  We  may  add  to  these  the 
lack  of  industry  and  self-control. 

To  those  who,  like  Reel  us  and  Krapotkin,  object  that  there 
are  savage  peoples  who  are  honorable  and  chaste,  we  must 
reply  that  a  certain  degree  of  density  of  population  and  of 
association  among  men  is  necessary  for  crimes  to  develop.  It  is 
not  possible  for  example,  to  steal  when  property  does  not  exist, 
or  to  swindle  when  there  is  no  trade.  But  the  proof  that  these 
tendencies  exist  in  germ  in  the  savage,  is  that  when  they  begin 
to  pass  from  their  stage  of  savagery  and  take  on  a  little  civili- 
zation they  always  develop  the  characteristics  of  criminality 

1  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  136  to  579. 

2  Tacitus,  "Germ.,"  VII. 

»  "Criminologie,"  2d  ed.,  1895. 


§  200]  ATAVISM  AND  EPILEPSY  LN  CRIME  367 

in  an  exaggerated  form.  As  Ferrero  has  pointed  out  to  us,  even 
when  honor,  chastity,  and  pity  are  found  among  savages, 
impulsiveness  and  laziness  are  never  wanting.  Savages  have  a 
horror  of  continuous  work,  so  that  for  them  the  passage  to 
active  and  methodical  labor  lies  by  the  road  of  selection  or  of 
slavery  only.  Thus,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Tacitus, 
the  impulsiveness  of  the  ancient  Germans  frequently  resulted 
in  the  murder  of  slaves,  committed  in  a  fit  of  anger,  an  act  which 
was  not  regarded  as  culpable.  Tacitus  notes  also  their  lack 
of  capacity  for  work. 

"They  have,"  he  says,  "large  bodies,  effective  for  sudden 
effort,  but  they  lack  the  patience  necessary  for  regular  work. 
When  they  are  not  at  war  they  do  nothing  .  .  .  they  sleep 
and  eat.  The  strongest  and  most  warlike  live  in  idleness, 
leaving  the  care  of  the  house  and  the  field  to  the  women,  the 
old  men,  and  the  weak,  becoming  themselves  .brutalized  in  sloth." 

At  times,  on  the  other  hand,  impulsiveness,  rather  than 
sluggishness,  seems  to  ally  itself  with  a  ceaseless  need  of 
movement,  which  asserts  itself  in  savage  peoples  in  a  life 
of  incessant  vagabondage.  Thus  the  Andaman  Islanders,  as 
Hovelacque  tells  us,  have  so  restless  a  disposition  that  they 
remain  not  more  than  two  or  three  days  in  the  same  place,  and 
their  wanderings  have  no  other  reason  than  the  need  of  move- 
ment. This  attitude  seems  to  be  the  result  of  a  passage  be- 
tween physiopsychic  inertia  and  an  intermittent  need  of 
violent  and  unrestrained  physical  and  moral  excitation,  which 
always  goes  with  inertia  and  impulsiveness.  Thus  it  is  that 
those  peoples  who  are  normally  most  lazy  and  indolent  have 
the  most  unrestrained  and  noisy  dances,  which  they  carry  on 
until  they  get  into  a  kind  of  delirium,  and  fall  down  utterly 
exhausted.  "When  the  Spaniards,"  writes  Robertson,  "first 
saw  the  American  Indians,  they  were  astonished  at  their  mad 
passion  for  dancing,  and  at  the  dizzy  activity  which  this  people, 
almost  always  cold  and  passive,  displayed  when  they  gave  them- 
selves up  to  this  amusement."  "The  negroes  of  Africa," 
writes  Du  Chaillu,  "dance  madly  when  they  hear  the  sound  of 
the  tom-tom,  and  lose  all  command  of  themselves."  "It  is," 
says  Letourneau,  "a  real  dancing  madness,  which  makes  them 
forget  their  troubles,  public  or  private." 


368  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§200 

We  may  add  that  the  atavism  of  the  criminal,  when  he  lacks 
absolutely  every  trace  of  shame  and  pity,  may  go  back  far 
beyond  the  savage,  even  to  the  brutes  themselves.  Patho- 
logical anatomy  helps  prove  our  position  by  showing  in  the 
case  of  the  criminal  a  greater  development  of  the  cerebellum,  a 
rarer  union  of  the  calcarine  fissure  with  the  parieto-occipital, 
the  absence  of  folds  in  the  passage  of  Gratiolet,  the  gutter- 
like shape  of  the  nasal  incisure,  the  frequency  of  the  olecranial 
foramen,  extra  ribs  and  vertebrae,  and  especially  the  histo- 
logical anomalies  discovered  by  Roncoroni  in  the  cortex  of 
the  cerebrum  of  criminals,  that  is  to  say,  the  frequent  absence 
of  granular  layers,  and  the  presence  of  nerve  cells  in  the  white 
matter,  and  immense  pyramidal  cells.  In  seeking  for  analogies 
beyond  our  own  race  we  come  upon  the  explanation  of  the 
union  of  the  atlas  with  the  occipital  bone,  the  prominence  of 
the  canine  teeth,  the  flattening  of  the  palate,  and  the  median 
occipital  fossa,  occurring  among  criminals  as  with  the  lemurs 
and  rodents;  ^  as  also  the  prehensile  foot,  the  simplicity  of  the 
lines  of  the  palm,  motor  and  sensory  left-handedness.  We 
recall  also  the  tendency  to  cannibalism  even  without  desire  for 
vengeance,  and  still  more  that  form  of  sanguinary  ferocity, 
mingled  with  lubricity,  of  which  examples  are  furnished  us  by 
Gille,  Verzeni,  Legier,  Bertrand,  Artusio,  the  Marquis  of  Sade, 
and  others,  with  whom  atavism  was  accompanied  by  epilepsy, 
idiocy,  or  general  paralysis,  but  who  always  recall  the  pairing 
of  animals,  preceded  by  ferocious  and  sanguinary  contests  to 
overcome  the  reticence  of  the  female  or  to  conquer  rivals.^ 

These  facts  prove  clearly  that  the  most  horrible  crimes  have 
their  origin  in  those  animal  instincts  of  which  childhood  gives 
us  a  pale  reflection.  Repressed  in  civilized  man  by  education, 
environment,  and  the  fear  of  punishment,  they  suddenly  break 
out  in  the  born  criminal  without  apparent  cause,  or  under  the 
influence  of  certain  circumstances,  such  as  sickness,  atmospheric 
influences,  sexual  excitement,  or  mob  influence.  We  know 
that  certain  morbid  conditions,  such  as  injuries  to  the  head, 
meningitis,  and  chronic  intoxication,  or  certain  physiological 

»  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  160,  217,  176,  182. 
2  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  449,  513;  Vol.  II,  pp.  95,  96,  123,  139, 
144,  147. 


§  201]  ATAVISM  AND  EPILEPSY  IN  CRIME  369 

conditions  like  pregnancy  and  senility,  produce  derangements 
in  the  nutrition  of  the  nervous  centers,  and  in  consequence 
atavistic  retrogressions.  We  can  see,  then,  how  they  may 
facilitate  the  tendency  to  crime,  and  when  we  take  into  account 
the  short  distance  that  separates  the  criminal  from  the  savage, 
we  come  to  understand  why  convicts  so  easily  adopt  savage 
customs,  including  cannibalism,  as  was  observed  in  Australia 
and  Guiana.^  When  we  note,  further,  how  children,  until  they 
are  educated,  are  ignorant  of  the  difference  between  vice  and 
virtue,  and  steal,  strike,  and  lie  without  the  least  compunction, 
we  easily  understand  the  great  precocity  in  crime,  and  see 
why  it  is  that  the  majority  of  abandoned  children  and  orphans 
end  by  becoming  criminals.^  Further,  atavism  shows  us  the 
inefficacy  of  punishment  for  bom  criminals  and  why  it  is  that 
they  inevitably  have  periodic  relapses  into  crime,  so  that  the 
greatest  variation  shown  by  the  number  of  crimes  against 
persons  is  not  more  than  ^,  and  by  those  against  property 
not  more  than  ^.^ 

We  see,  as  Maury  very  truly  remarks,  that  we  are  governed 
by  silent  laws,  which  never  fall  into  desuetude  and  rule  society 
much  more  surely  than  the  laws  inscribed  in  the  codes. 

§  201.  EpUepsy 

The  same  phenomena  which  we  observe  in  the  case  of  born 
criminals  appear  again  in  the  rare  cases  of  moral  insanity,^  but 
may  be  studied  minutely,  and  on  a  large  scale,  in  epileptics, 
criminal  or  not,^  as  the  table  given  below  will  prove.  There 
we  shall  see  that  not  one  of  the  atavistic  phenomena  shown  by 
criminals  is  lacking  in  epilepsy;  though  epileptics  show  also 
certain  purely  morbid  phenomena,  such  as  cephalea,  atheroma, 
dehrium,  and  hallucination.  In  born  criminals  also  we  find, 
besides  the  atavistic  characteristics,  certain  others  that  appear 
to  be  entirely  pathological,  or  which  at  first  sight  seem  more 
neariy  allied  to  disease  than  to  atavism.  Such  are,  for  example, 
in  the  anatomical  field,  excessive  asymmetry,  cranial  capacity 

1  Bouvier,  "Voyage  ^  la  Guyane,"  1866 

2  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  92  to  108 

3  Maury    "Mouvemente  Moral  de  la  Soci6t^,"  Pans,  1860. 

4  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II,  PP-  2-13 

6  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II,  PP.  50-201. 


370  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§201 

and  face  too  large  or  too  small,  sclerosis,  traces  of  meningitis, 
hydrocephalous  forehead,  oxycephaly,  acrocephaly,  cranial  de- 
pressions, numerous  osteophytes,  early  closing  of  the  cranial 
sutures,  thoracic  asymmetry,  late  grayness  of  hair,  late  bald- 
ness, and  abnormal  and  early  wrinkles;  in  the  biological  field, 
alterations  of  the  reflexes  and  pupillary  inequalities.  To 
these  we  may  add  peripheral  scotomata  of  the  visual  field, 
which  one  never  finds  in  savages,  with  whom,  on  the  contrary, 
the  field  of  vision  is  remarkably  wide  and  regular,  as  we  see 
in  the  case  of  the  Dinkas.  There  is  also  to  be  added  the  altera- 
tion of  hearing,  taste,  and  smell,  the  predilection  for  animals, 
precocity  in  sexual  pleasures,  amnesia,  vertigo,  and  maniac 
and  paranoiac  complications.  These  abnormalities,  which  are 
found  in  greater  proportion  among  idiots,  cretins,  and  degener- 
ates in  general,  are  to  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  in  these 
cases  alcohoHc  intoxication  is  added  to  the  effect  of  atavism, 
and  still  more  to  that  of  epilepsy. 

However,  the  participation  of  epilepsy  in  producing  the  effect 
does  not  exclude  atavism,  since  they  equally  involve  character- 
istics at.  once  atavistic  and  pathological,  like  macrocephaly, 
cranial  sclerosis.  Wormian  bones,  rarity  of  beard;  and  in  the 
biological  field,  left-handedness,  analgesis,  obtuseness  of  all 
senses  except  that  of  sight,  impulsiveness,  pederasty,  obscenity, 
sluggishness,  superstition,  frequent  cannibalism,  choleric  and 
impetuous  disposition,  tendency  to  reproduce  the  cries  and 
actions  of  animals;  and  especially  the  histological  anomalies 
of  the  cortex,  which  we  have  noted  among  criminals,  and  which 
reproduce  the  conditions  of  the  lower  animals;  and  finally 
anomalies  of  the  teeth.  These  latter  might  appear  to  have  no 
connection  with  the  brain,  but  are,  on  the  contrary,  intimately 
connected  with  it,  since  the  teeth  proceed  from  the  same  em- 
bryonic membrane  as  the  brain  does.^ 

We  may  recall  here  that  Gowers,  having  often  noted  in  epi- 
leptics acts  peculiar  to  animals,  such  as  biting,  barking,  and 
mewing,  concludes  from  this  "that  these  are  manifestations 
of  that  instinctive  animalism  which  we  possess  in  the  latent 
state."  2 

1  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  p.  232,  n. 

2  "Epilepsy,"  London,  1880. 


§  201]  ATAVISM  AND  EPILEPSY  IN  CRIME 


371 


t 


'Volume  too  great 

Volume  too  small 

Sclerosis      

Exostosis 

Asymmetry 

Median  occipital  fossa     ... 
Cranial  index  too  great    .    .    .    , 
Strongly  arched  brows     .    .    .    , 
Low,  retreating  forehead     .    .    , 
Hydrocephalous  forehead    .    . 

Cranial  osteophytes 

Numerous  Wormian  bones      .    . 

Frontal  suture 

Early  synostosis 

'^  Oblique  orbits .    . 

Lemurine  appendix 

Maxillaries  too  large 

Large  and  prominent  zygomata 
Large,  outstanding  ears  .    .    .    . 

Facial  asymmetry 

Strabismus 

Masculine  face  in  women    .    .    . 

Dental  diastemata 

Anomalies  of  bones  of  nose     .    . 

Anomalies  of  teeth 

V  Bones  of  face  too  large    .    .    .    . 

/•Anomalies  of  fissures 

I  Small  weight      

■<  H^-pertrophy  of  cerebellum     .    . 
I  Histological  changes  of  cortex    . 

l.Traces  of  meningitis 

^Asymmetry  of  thorax 

Prehensile  foot 

Left-handedness 

Hernia 

Simplicity  of  lines  of  palm  .    .    . 
Visceral  lesions      


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If  fully  developed  epileptic  fits  are  often  lacking  in  the  case 
of  the  born  criminal,  this  is  because  they  remain  latent,  and 
only  show  themselves  later  under  the  influence  of  the  causes 
assigned  (anger,  alcoholism),  which  bring  them  to  the  surface. 
With  both  criminals  and  epileptics  there  is  to  be  noted  an 
insufficient  development  of  the  higher  centers.     This  manifests 


372 


CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES 


[§201 


■C 


CO 


{Abnormal  wrinkles 
Sparse  beard  
Yellowish  tint 
Tattooing 
Crispy  hair 

f  Left-handedness  and  ambidextry 
J  Abnormalities  of  reflexes     .    .    . 

I  Unequal  pupils      

^Abnormal  agility 

/Obtuseness  of  sense  of  touch  .    . 

Relative  insensibility  to  pain 

Great  visual  acuteness     .... 

Obtuseness  of  hearing,  taste,  and 
smell 

Sensorial  left-handedness     .    .    . 

Peripheral  scotomata  of  the  field 

.    of  vision 

Ximited  intelligence 

Superstition 

Emotional  obtuseness 

Lack  of  moral  sensibility     .    .    . 

Absence  of  remorse 

Cannibalism,  ferocity,  lack  of 
self-control 

Pederasty,  onanism,  obscenity   . 

Exaggerated  religious  beliefs  .    . 

Vagrancy 

Sexual  precocity 

Vanity 

Simulation 

Laziness,  inertia 

Improvidence 

Cowardice 

Passion  for  gambling 

Mania,  paranoia,  delirium  .    .    . 

.Vertigo 

( Heredity  (alcoholism,  insanity, 
s  epilepsy,  old  age  of  parents)  . 
'  Alcoholism,  etc 


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itself  in  a  deterioration  in  the  moral  and  emotional  sensibilities, 
in  sluggishness,  physiopsychic  hyperexcitability,  and  especially 
in  a  lack  of  balance  in  the  mental  faculties,  which,  even  when 
distinguished  by  genius  and  altruism,  nevertheless  always 
show  gaps,  contrasts,  and  intermittent  action. 


§  203]  ATAVISM  AND  EPILEPSY  IN  CRIME  373 

§  202.  Combination  of  Morbid  Anomalies  with  Atavism 
Very  often,  moreover,  certain  common  characteristics  of 
criminals  and  epileptics  have  been  classed  as  abnormal  or 
morbid  and  not  as  atavistic,  entirely  because  of  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  our  embryological  and  phylogenetic  knowledge. 
Many  of  the  characteristics  given  in  the  preceding  table  (which, 
however,  is  only  schematic)  are  atavistic  and  morbid  at  the 
same  time,  such  as  microcephaly,  cranial  sclerosis,  etc.  Facial 
asymmetry  would  also  appear  to  be  atavistic  when  we  recall, 
for  example,  the  flat-jBshes  (Penta) ;  so  likewise  the  abnormally 
wrinkled  face,  taking  us  back  to  the  Hottentots  and  the  apes. 
Hernia,  also,  as  Fere  rightly  remarks,  recalls  conditions  that 
are  normal  in  the  lower  vertebrates  and  in  the  embryo. 

Very  often  morbidity  and  atavism  go  back  to  a  common 
cause,  as  Wagner  ^  observes  in  a  magnificent  dissertation. 

"The  idea,"  he  writes,  "that  the  atavism  of  criminals  is 
associated  with  some  specific  disease  of  the  fcBtus  has  been 
completely  confirmed  by  the  discoveries  ofj  Ettinghausen.  If, 
for  example,  we  freeze  the  roots  of  an  oak  so  as  partly  to  kill  it, 
the  following  year  it  will  put  out  leaves  that  are  not  like  the 
leaves  of  the  modern  oak,  but  like  those  of  the  oak  of  the  ter- 
tiary period.  This  fact  explains  the  reappearance  of  inter- 
mediate and  indistinct  fossil  forms.  We  see  very  clearly,  then, 
that  influences  capable  of  producing  a  disease  can  bring  about 
atavistic  morphological  retrogressions." 

The  epileptic  background  upon  which  the  clinical  and  ana- 
tomical picture  of  the  moral  lunatic  and  the  born  criminal  is 
drawn  (a  picture  that  would  otherv/ise  be  lost  in  vague  semi- 
juridical,  semi-psychiatric  hypotheses)  explains  the  instan- 
taneousness,  periodicity,  and  paradoxical  character  of  their 
symptoms,  which  are  doubtless  their  most  marked  character- 
istics. Note,  for  example,  in  this  class,  the  coexistence  and 
interchange  of  kindness  and  ferocity,  of  cowardice  and  the 
maddest  recklessness,  and  of  genius  and  complete  stupidity. 
§  203.   The  Criminaloid 

Criminaloids,  while  quite  separable  from  born  criminals,  do 
not  lack  some  connection  with  epilepsy  and  atavism.     Thus 

1  Wagner   von   Jauregg,    "Antrittsvorlesung   an   der   Psychiatrischen 
Klinik,"  Vienna,  1895. 


374  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§203 

there  are  more  epileptics  among  them  (10%  among  pickpockets) 
than  among  normal  men,  and  a  greater  proportion  of  criminal 
types  (17%),  but  there  are  also  certain  specific  anomalies,  such 
as  left-handedness,  common  among  swindlers,^ 

In  the  biology  of  the  criminaloid  we  observe  a  smaller  number 
of  anomalies  in  touch,  sensibility  to  pain,  psychometry,  and 
especially  less  early  baldness  and  grayness,  and  less  tattooing. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  meet  with  a  larger  number  of 
strictly  morbid  anomalies,  depending  upon  the  abuse  of  alco- 
holic drinks,  such  as  atheromata,  paresis,  and  scars.  Psychic 
anomaUes  are  especially  less  frequent  with  the  criminaloid, 
who  has  not  the  cynicism  of  the  born  criminal  nor  the  passion 
for  doing  evil  for  its  own  sake;  he  confesses  his  fault  more 
easily  and  with  more  sincerity,  and  repents  more  often.  But 
he  is  more  lascivious,  and  more  often  given  to  alcoholism;  and 
the  criminaloid  women  are  more  susceptible  to  suggestion. 
The  criminaloid  is  more  precocious  and  relapses  oftener,  —  at 
least  this  is  the  case  with  pickpockets  and  simple  thieves.  They 
are  often  drawn  into  crime  by  a  greater  opportunity,  although 
the  lack  of  self-control  which  makes  the  epileptic  commit 
crime  without  reason  is  sometimes  found  in  the  criminaloid 
also.  We  may  recall  how  Casenova  confessed  that  when  he 
committed  a  fraud  he  never  premeditated  it,  but  "seemed  to 
yield  to  a  superior  will."  A  pickpocket  said  to  me,  "When  the 
inspiration  comes  to  us  we  cannot  resist."  Dostojevsky  depicts 
smugglers  of  the  prison  as  carrying  on  their  occupation  almost 
without  returns,  notwithstanding  the  grave  risks  they  run  and 
in  spite  of  repeated  promises  not  to  relapse.  Mendel  and  Ben- 
edict describe  the  impulsive  nature  of  the  vagabond,  which 
keeps  him  moving  without  object  and  without  rest. 

Criminaloids,  then,  differ  from  born  criminals  in  degree,  not 
in  kind.  This  is  so  true  that  the  greater  number  of  them, 
having  become  habitual  criminals,  thanks  to  a  long  sojourn  in 
prison,  can  no  longer  be  distinguished  from  born  criminals 
except  by  the  slighter  character  of  their  physical  marks  of 
criminality. 

Still  less  different  from  born  criminals  are  those  latent  crimi- 
1  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  216,  514,  518. 


N 


§  204]  ATAVISM  AND  EPILEPSY  IN  CRIME  375 

nals,  high  in  power,  whom  society  venerates  as  its  chiefs.  They 
bear  the  marks  of  congenital  criminaHty,  but  their  high  posi- 
tion generally  prevents  their  criminal  character  from  being 
recognized.  Their  families,  of  which  they  are  the  scourges, 
may  discover  it;  or  their  depraved  nature  may  be  revealed  all 
too  late  at  the  expense  of  the  whole  country,  at  the  head  of 
which  their  own  shamelessness,  seconded  by  the  ignorance  and 
cowardice  of  the  majority,  has  caused  them  to  be  placed.  Even 
this  strange  species  of  criminal  monomaniac,  who  seems  to 
differ  from  the  epileptic  in  the  motive  of  his  crime  and  the 
manner  of  carrying  it  out,^  shows  nevertheless  the  epileptic 
and  atavistic  origin  of  his  criminality  by  obsessions,  interrupted 
periods  of  ideation,  lack  of  self-control,  exaggerated  importance 
given  to  certain  details,  exhaustion  after  his  criminal  crises, 
fondness  for  symbolism,  excessive  and  intermittent  activity, 
and  finally  by  hereditary  stigmata. 

§  204.   Criminal  Insane 

Even  among  the  true  insane  criminals  those  forms  predom- 
inate which  we  may  call  the  hypertrophy  of  crime,  the  exagger- 
ation of  the  born  criminal,  not  only  in  bodily  and  functional 
characteristics  but  also  in  the  manner  of  committing  the  crime 
and  in  conduct  afterward.^  These  serve  to  explain  to  us  the 
extent  of  the  impulsive,  obscene,  and  cruel  tendencies  of  the 
criminal  insane,  who  are  almost  always  obscure  epileptics  or 
born  criminals  upon  whom  melancholia  and  monomania  have 
grafted  themselves,  according  to  the  natural  tendency  of  dif- 
ferent forms  of  psychic  disorders  to  take  root  together  upon 
the  corrupted  soil  of  degeneracy.  We  have  seen,  likewise, 
how  hysterical  persons,  alcoholics,  dipsomaniacs,  pyromaniacs, 
kleptomaniacs,  the  temporarily  insane,  reproduce  many  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  epileptic.  Even  the  mattoid,  who  on 
account  of  his  habitual  calm  and  the  absence  of  signs  of  degen- 
eracy and  heredity,  seems  far  removed  from  epilepsy,  yet  shows 
at  times  this  epileptic  form,  which  we  have  seen  to  be  the  ker- 
nel of  crime. ^ 

1  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  94,  97,  418. 

2  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  34  to  228;  Vol.  II,  p.  213. 
»  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II,  p.  646. 


376  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§207 

§  205.   Criminals  by  Passion 

Criminals  of  this  class  form  a  species  apart,  and  are  in  com- 
plete contrast  with  the  born  criminal,  both  in  the  harmonious 
lines  of  the  body,  the  beauty  of  the  soul,  and  great  nervous 
and  emotional  sensitiveness,  as  well  as  in  the  motives  of  their 
crimes,  always  noble  and  powerful,  such  as  love  or  politics. 
Nevertheless  they  show  some  points  of  resemblance  with  epi- 
leptics, such  as  their  tendency  to  excesses,  impulsiveness, 
suddenness  in  their  outbreaks,  and  frequent  amnesia.^ 

§  206.   Occasional  Criminals 

Occasional  criminals,  or  better,  pseudo-criminals,  are  those 
who  do  not  seek  the  occasion  for  the  crime  but  are  almost  drawn 
into  it,  or  fall  into  the  meshes  of  the  code  for  very  insignificant 
reasons.  These  are  the  only  ones  who  escape  all  connection 
with  atavism  and  epilepsy;  but,  as  Garafalo  observes,  these 
ought  not,  properly  speaking,  to  be  called  criminals. 

§  207.   Causes 

The  study  of  the  causes  of  crime  does  not  lessen  the  fatal  in- 
fluence to  be  assigned  to  the  organic  factor,  which  certainly 
amounts  to  35%  and  possibly  even  40%;  the  so-called  causes 
of  crime  being  often  only  the  last  determinants  and  the  great 
strength  of  congenital  impulsiveness  the  principal  cause.  This 
we  have  proved  in  some  cases  by  the  continual  relapses  occa- 
sioned by  very  small  causes,  or  even  without  causes,  when  not 
only  the  economic  environment  has  been  changed,  but  when  all 
the  circumstances  that  might  encourage  crime  have  been  re- 
moved; and  we  have  proved  it  especially  by  the  increasing 
recidivism  in  London,  notwithstanding  the  great  efforts  made 
by  Great  Britain  to  suppress  the  causes  which  produce  crime. 
Finally,  we  have  seen  that  certain  circumstances  have  so  strong 
an  action  upon  criminaloids  that  they  are  equivalent  to  organic 
causes,  and  we  may  even  say  that  they  become  organic.  Among 
these  circumstances  should  be  noted  the  effect  of  excessive 

»  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II,  p.  226. 


§  208]  ATAVISM  AND  EPILEPSY  IN  CRIME  377 

heat  upon  rapes,  assaults,  assassinations,  and  revolts,  and  the 
effect  of  alcohol  and  heredity  upon  the  whole  gamut  of  crime; 
and  to  these  must  be  added  the  effect  of  race,  which  in  Italy- 
through  the  Semitic  race,  and  in  France  through  the  Ligurian 
race,  increases  the  crimes  of  blood. 

A  fact  of  the  greatest  importance  is  that  the  same  causes 
which  diminish  certain  crimes  increase  others,  making  it  difficult 
for  the  statesman  to  devise  a  remedy.  Thus  we  have  seen  that 
education  and  wealth  cause  a  decrease  in  certain  brutal  crimes, 
especially  homicides  and  assassinations,  but  at  the  same  time 
increase  others,  or  even  create  new  crimes,  such  as  bankruptcy 
and  swindling.  And  if,  for  example,  too  great  a  density  is  the 
cause  of  many  crimes,  such  as  frauds  and  thefts,  a  sparse  popu- 
lation, in  its  turn,  favors  brigandage  and  crimes  of  blood.  Scar- 
city favors  thefts  from  the  forests,  forgeries,  insurrections,  and 
incendiary  fires,  while  cheapness  of  grain  multiplies  the  rapes, 
homicides,  and  crimes  against  persons  genefally. 

Alcohol,  which  next  to  heat  is  the  most  powerful  crime-pro- 
ducer, increases,  when  it  is  cheap,  all  the  crimes  against  persons 
and  against  the  public  administration;  and  if  it  is  dear,  all  the 
crimes  against  property.  Yet  it  presents  this  strange  contra- 
diction, that  the  more  serious  crimes  are  least  numerous  where 
alcohol  is  most  abused,  doubtless  because  this  abuse  takes  place 
in  just  those  localities  where  there  is  a  higher  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  this,  by  favoring  inhibition,  decreases  the  more  bar- 
barous crimes. 

The  school,  likewise  is  a  cause  of  crime,  but  where  education 
is  most  general  it  diminishes  the  number  and  seriousness  of  the 
crimes. 

§  208.  Necessity  of  Crime 

Statistics  as  well  as  anthropological  investigations  show  ua 
crime,  then,  as  a  natural  phenomonon,  —  a  phenomenon  (some 
philosophers  would  say)  as  necessary  as  birth,  death,  or  con- 
ception. 

This  idea  of  the  necessity  of  crime,  however  bold  it  may  ap- 
pear, is  nevertheless  not  so  new  nor  so  heterodox  as  one  might 
believe  at  first  sight.     Centuries  ago  Casaubon  expressed  the 


378  CRBIE:    ITS  CAUSES    AND  REMEDIES        [§208 

same  truth  when  he  said,  "Man  does  not  sin,  but  he  is  coerced 
in  various  degrees";  and  St.  Bernard  hkewise  said,  "Which  one 
of  us,  however  experienced  he  may  be,  can  distinguish  among 
his  own  wishes  the  influence  of  the  morsus  serpentis  from  that  of 
the  morbus  mentis?"  And  further:  "The  sin  is  less  in  our  heart, 
and  we  do  not  know  whether  we  ought  to  ascribe  it  to  ourselves 
or  to  the  enemy:  it  is  hard  to  know  what  the  heart  does  and 
what  it  is  obliged  to  do."  St.  Augustine  is  still  more  explicit 
when  he  says:  "Not  even  the  angels  can  make  the  man  who 
wills  evil  will  the  good."  The  boldest  and  most  ardent  de- 
fender of  this  theory  is  a  fervent  Catholic  and  a  priest  of  the 
Tyrol,  Ruf.i 

The  defenders  of  theories  quite  opposed  to  our  own  also 
aflSrm  it  indirectly  by  the  contradictions  into  which  they  fall 
in  their  definitions.  If  we  compare  the  different  attempts  at 
criminal  codes  we  see  how  difficult  it  is  for  the  legal  expert  to 
fix  the  theory  of  irresponsibility  and  to  find  an  exact  definition 
for  it.  "The  whole  world  knows  what  a  good  or  a  bad  action 
is,  but  it  is  difficult,  even  impossible,  to  tell  whether  the  de- 
praved act  has  been  committed  with  a  full,  or  only  an  incom- 
plete, knowledge  of  the  evil,"  says  Mittermayer.  Way  ^  writes: 
"We  have  not  yet  any  scientific  knowledge  of  responsibility." 
And  Mahring  says:^  "Irresponsibility  is  a  matter  which  crim- 
inal justice  cannot  decide  with  certainty  in  any  special  case." 
In  fact,  there  are  men  who  are  afflicted  with  incipient  insanity, 
or  are  so  profoundly  predisposed  to  it  that  the  slightest  cause 
may  make  them  fall  into  it.  Others  are  driven  by  heredity  to 
eccentricity  or  to  immoral  excesses.  "Knowledge  of  the  act," 
says  Delbriick,  "with  an  examination  of  the  body  and  the  mind 
before  and  after  it,  is  not  enough  to  clear  up  the  question  of 
responsibility;  it  is  necessary  to  know  the  life  of  the  criminal 
from  the  cradle  to  the  dissecting  table."  ^  Now  as  long  as  the 
criminal  is  living  it  is  hardly  possible  to  dissect  him.  Carrara 
presumes  "absolute  responsibility  where  both  intellect  and  will 

^  G.  Ruf,  "Die  Criminal justiz,  ihre  Widerspriiche  und  Zxikunft,"^ 
Innsbruck,  1870. 

*  "Die  strafrechtliche  Zurechnung,"  1851. 

3  "Die  Zukunft  der  peinlichen  Rechtspflege,"  p.  188. 

<  "Zeitschrift  fiir  Psychiatric,"  1864,  p.  72. 


§  209]  ATAVISM  AND  EPILEPSY  IN  CRIME  379 

combine  in  the  accomplishment  of  a  criminal  action,"  but  he 
adds  immediately  afterward,  "upon  the  condition  that  the  action 
of  the  will  has  not  been  lessened  by  physical,  intellectual,  or 
moral  causes."  Now  we  have  seen  that  there  is  no  crime  in 
which  these  causes  are  lacking. 

§  209.   The  Right  to  Punish 

Some  one  replies  to  us:  "But  if  you  deny  responsibility,  what 
right  have  you  to  punish?  You  proclaim  that  a  man  is  not 
answerable  for  his  conduct,  and  yet  you  exact  a  penalty.  How 
inconsistent,  and  how  harsh!"  I  shall  never  forget  how  a  ven- 
erable thinker  shook  his  head  when  he  read  these  pages,  and 
said  to  me:  "Where  will  you  arrive,  with  such  premises?  Must 
we  let  ourselves  be  pillaged  and  murdered  by  brigands  upon  the 
pretext  that  we  cannot  decide  whether  they  know  they  are  doing 
wrong?"  I  answer:  nothing  is  less  logical  than  to  try  to  be  too 
logical;  nothing  is  more  imprudent  than  to  try  to  maintain 
theories,  even  those  which  are  apparently  the  soundest,  if  they 
are  going  to  upset  the  order  of  society.  If  a  physician  at  the 
bedside  of  a  patient,  when  there  is  grave  danger,  must  proceed 
cautiously  even  with  the  best  established  system  of  medicine, 
the  sociologist  must  observe  still  greater  circumspection,  for  if 
he  puts  into  operation  innovations  of  an  upsetting  nature  he 
will  simply  succeed  in  demonstrating  the  uselessness  and  inef- 
ficiency of  his  science. 

Scientific  knowledge,  however,  is  happily  not  at  war  but  in 
alliance  with  social  order  and  practice.  If  crime  is  a  necessary 
thing,  so  also  is  society's  resistance  to  crime,  and,  consequently, 
the  punishment  of  crime,  which  must  be  measured  by  the  amount 
of  apprehension  with  which  it  inspires  the  individual.  Punish- 
ment thus  becomes  less  hateful,  but  also  less  contradictory  and 
certainly  more  efficacious. 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  theory  of  punishment  has  a  sound 
basis,  except  that  of  natural  necessity  and  the  right  of  self- 
defense.    This  is  the  old  theory  of  Beccaria  and  of  Romagnosi,^ 

^  "Society  has  the  right  to  make  punishment  follow  upon  crime  as  a 
necessary  means  for  the  preservation  of  its  members."  (''Genesi  (Icl 
Diritto  Penale.")  "Penalties  which  go  beyond  the  necessity  of  preserving 
the  pubUc  weal  are  unjust."     (Beccaria,  "Dei  Dehtti  e  delle  Pene.  ) 


380  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES    AND  REMEDIES       [§209 

of  Carmignani,  and,  in  part,  of  Rosmini,  Mancini,  and  Ellero, 
and  it  has  now  valiant  defenders  in  Ferri,  Garofalo,  and,  above 
all,  Poletti.  In  Germany  we  see  this  theory  put  forward  by 
Hommel,  Feuerbach,  Grollmann,  and  Hottzendorff;  in  England 
by  Hobbes  and  Bentham;  and  in  France  by  Ortolan  and  Tissot. 
Tissot  declares  that  it  is  impossible  to  find  any  moral  relation- 
ship between  crime  and  punishment.^  In  France  a  state  prose- 
cuting attorney  has  said: 

"Man  has  no  intrinsic  right  to  punish;  in  order  to  have  this 
right  he  would  have  to  have  the  knowledge  of  absolute  justice. 
If  it  were  not  in  the  name  of  the  most  absolute  necessity,  how 
could  a  man  arrogate  to  himself  the  right  of  judging  his  fellow 
man?  From  the  fact  that  man  cannot  defend  himself  without 
inflicting  punishment,  the  conclusion  has  been  drawn  that  he 
has  the  right  to  punish;  but  that  he  really  does  not  have  it 
may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  when  this  pretended  right  is 
taken  by  itself  without  reference  to  the  concrete  need  it  ceases 
to  be  valid." 

Rondeau,  governor  under  Joseph  II,  in  his  "Essai  physique 
sur  la  peine  de  mort,"  ^  denied  the  freedom  of  the  will,  repudi- 
ated the  universally  accepted  notions  of  good  and  evil,  merit 
and  demerit,  and  in  speaking  of  repressive  justice  he  declared: 

"Crime  does  not  exist  in  nature;  it  is  the  law  alone  that  im- 
poses this  unjust  designation  upon  acts  that  are  necessary  and 
inevitable.  The  innumerable  and  diverse  causes  which  produce 
the  pretended  criminality  are  all  material  and  all  independent  of 
our  will,  like  the  miasma  that  produces  fever.  Anger  is  a  passing 
fever,  jealousy  a  momentary  deUrium,  the  rapacity  of  the  thief 
and  swindler  an  aberration  of  disease,  and  the  depraved  pas- 
sions that  drive  men  to  sins  against  nature  are  organic  imper- 
fections. All  moral  evil  is  the  result  of  physical  evil.  The 
murderer  himself  is  a  sick  man  like  all  other  criminals.  Why, 
and  in  the  name  of  what  principle,  could  they  be  punished, 
unless  it  is  because  they  disturb  the  regular  course  of  the  social 
life  and  impede  the  normal  and  legitimate  development  of  the 
species?     On  this  groimd  society,  or,  better,  the  government, 

"The  reason  for  the  state's  calling  a  criminal  to  account  is  not  to  exact 
vengeance  for  the  crime,  but  to  bring  it  about  that  crime  shall  not  be 
conmiitted  in  the  future."     (Carmignani.) 

1  "Introduction  Philosophique  k  I'Etude  du  Droit  Penal,"  1874,  p.  375. 

*  Frasati,  "La  NuovaScuolo  di  Diritto  Penale  in  Italia  ed  all'  Estero," 
Turin,  1891. 


§  209]  ATAVISM  AND  EPILEPSY  IN  CRIME  381 

had  the  right  to  place  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  fatal  con- 
sequences of  their  acts,  just  as  a  landowner  has  a  right  to  build 
a  dike  against  the  flood  which  tiireatens  to  inundate  his  fields 
The  social  power  can,  then,  without  scruple  andiwithout  hesi- 
tation, deprive  malefactors  of  their  liberty;  but  the  moment 
that  all  crime  is  recognized  as  the  natural  product  and  logical 
consequence  of  some  disease,  punishment  must  become  only  a 
medical  treatment.  We  shall  cure  the  thief  and  the  vagrant 
by  teaching  them  the  joys  of  honest  work.  If  by  an  exception, 
which  is  unhappily  too  frequent,  they  show  themselves  insensible 
to  medical  cure,  they  must  be  separated  from  their  fellow 
citizens." 

We  see  here  that  our  boldest  conclusions  are  already  more  than 
a  century  old. 

One  might  question  whether  it  is  from  wickedness  or  from 
the  effect  of  their  own  organism  that  wild  beasts  devour  man; 
but  notwithstanding  this  doubt,  no  one  would  abstain  from 
killing  them  and  tamely  allow  himself  to  be  devoured  by  them. 
Nor  would  any  one,  because  of  a  beUef  in  the  right  of  domestic 
animals  to  life  and  liberty,  refrain  from  harnessing  them  up  for 
work,  or  slaughtering  them  for  food.  And  what  right  have  we 
to  confine  the  insane,  if  it  is  not  for  self-defense?  By  what 
other  right  do  we  deprive  the  conscript  soldier  of  his  most  holy 
and  noble  right  of  forming  his  own  home  and  family,  and  send 
him,  many  times  in  spite  of  himself,  to  death? 

It  is  just  because  the  principle  of  punishment  is  based  upon 
the  necessity  of  defense  that  it  is  really  not  open  to  objection. 

Formerly,  punishment,  which  was  made  to  correspond  to  the 
crime  and  like  it  had  an  atavistic  origin,  did  not  attempt  to 
conceal  the  fact  that  it  was  either  an  equivalent  ^  or  an  act  of 
vengeance.  The  judges  were  not  ashamed  to  carry  out  the 
sentence  themselves,  as  the  members  of  the  holy  Vehme  did. 
Crime  was  considered  not  only  as  an  evil,  but  as  the  worst  of 
evils,  which  only  death  could  pay  for.  If  the  guilty  did  not 
confess,  torture  was  used.    When  torture  was  dispensed  with, 

1  iroiu-^,  poena,  compensation.  In  the  Iliad,  Achilles  killed  twelve 
Trojans  in  return  for  the  death  of  Patroclus.  The  compensation  for  the 
death  of  a  Frank  was  200  sous,  and  thefts  also  could  be  paid  for.  Slaves 
lost  their  lives  for  the  same  crimes  which  cost  a  free  man  only  45  sous. 
(Del  Giudice,  "La  Vendetta  nel  Diritto  Longobardo,"  1876.) 


382  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REI^IEDIES         [§209 

witnesses  sufficed.  Later  mere  presumptions  were  sufficient,  — 
and  such  presumptions !  Not  only  did  the  judges  kill  the  crim- 
inal, but  they  wanted  him  to  taste  death  slowly.  This  cruelty 
did  not  diminish  crime,  but  it  was  logical,  nevertheless.  The 
theory  does  not  contradict  the  practice.  The  conception  was 
that  the  criminal  never  improves,  and  that  he  begets  children 
like  himself.  The  death  of  the  criminal  alone  prevented  recid- 
ivism. Men  of  that  day  obeyed  the  instinct  that  impelled  them 
to  punish  one  offence  by  committing  another;  but  they  did  not 
conceal  this  view.  But  our  logic,  our  sincerity  in  penal  matters, 
where  is  it.-* 

We  still  have  this  primitive  instinct.  When  we  are  trying  a 
criminal,  we  have  always  a  tendency  to  measure  his  punishment 
by  the  degree  of  repugnance  and  horror  with  which  his  crime 
inspires  us  and  to  be  filled  with  indignation  against  the  man 
who  has  confessed  it.  So  we  not  infrequently  see  representa- 
tives of  the  law  forgetting  their  abstract  theories  and  demanding 
in  loud  tones  that  the  vengeance  of  society  be  visited  upon  the 
offender.  Yet  the  same  men,  when  inditing  a  book  upon  crim- 
inal law  or  sitting  to  legislate  on  the  same  subject,  would  repu- 
diate such  an  attitude  with  horror.  And  what  logic  is  there  in 
the  theory,  which  is  being  brought  into  vogue  again  by  Roeder, 
Garelli,  Pessina,  that  punishment  is  for  the  purpose  of  reform, 
when  we  know  very  well  that  the  reform  of  the  guiltj^  is  always 
or  nearly  always  an  exception,  while  the  prison  not  only  does  not 
improve  him  but  even  makes  him  worse.  Besides,  how,  with 
such  a  theory,  could  one  justify  the  punishments  inflicted  for 
political  crimes,  or  crimes  committed  through  excitement  or 
passion,  followed  as  they  almost  always  are  by  spontaneous 
and  complete  repentance?  Oppenheim,  after  having  written 
that  every  crime  should  be  followed  by  a  proportionate  penalty 
and  that  the  penalty  should  not  only  be  an  evil  but  should 
appear  as  such,  goes  on  to  say  (with  Mohl  and  Thur) :  "Punish- 
ment should  have  for  its  only  aim  the  reformation  and  employ- 
ment of  the  criminal."  But  is  not  this  an  obvious  contradiction.'* 
How  can  you  reconcile  the  theory  which  has  the  criminal  dis- 
honored with  that  which  pretends  to  improve  him?  How  can 
you  brand  him  upon  the  brow  with  iron,  and  say  to  him,  "Make 


§  209]  ATAVISM  AND  EPILEPSY  IN  CBIME  383 

yourself  better  "?  What  are  the  theories  of  Herbert,  Kant, 
Altomid,  and  Hegel,  but  the  ancient  ideas  of  vengeance  and  the 
lex  talionis  disguised  in  modern  dress? 

And  with  all  this  the  State  does  not  thmk  of  the  morrow.  It 
shuts  the  prisoner  up,  and  when  he  has  served  the  term  of  his 
sentence  it  sets  him  at  liberty  again,  thus  increasing  the  danger 
of  society,  for  the  criminal  always  becomes  more  depraved  in 
the  promiscuity  of  the  prison,  and  goes  out  more  irritated  and 
better  armed  against  society.  With  this  theory  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  justify  the  increase  of  the  penalty  in  the  case  of  recid- 
ivism nor  the  adoption  of  preventive  measures. 

Some  legislators  maintain  that  a  criminal  ought  to  be  made 
to  expiate  his  crime.  But  the  conception  of  expiation  is  eccle- 
siastical, and  how  can  we  say  that  a  criminal  expiates  his  crime, 
when  it  is  by  force  that  we  take  away  his  life  or  his  liberty.? 

The  theory  of  intimidation  in  its  turn  offers  numerous  con- 
tradictions. Our  predecessors  cut  off  nose  and  ears,  quartered, 
boiled  in  water  and  in  oil,  and  poured  melted  lead  down  the 
throat.  But  they  succeeded  only  in  multiplying  crimes  and 
making  them  more  horrible,  for  the  frequency  and  ferocity  of 
the  punishments  hardened  men;  in  the  time  of  Robespierre 
even  the  children  played  at  guillotining.^  But  what  do  men 
expect  to  accomplish  by  intimidation  nowadays,  when  penal- 
ties have  been  made  so  much  milder  and  the  prisons  are  almost 
Uke  comfortable  hotels?  And  then,  what  sort  of  justice  is  that 
which  punishes  a  man,  less  for  the  crime  he  has  committed  than 
to  serve  as  an  example  to  others? 

Further,  the  right  to  punish,  based  upon  the  nature  of  the 
deed  itself,  has  nothing  absolute  in  it,  since  we  see  the  penalty 
varying  according  to  the  temper  and  habits  of  the  particular 
judge.  Breton  affirms  that  a  judge  accustomed  to  deal  with 
great  crimes  will  inflict  punishments  relatively  more  severe 

^  The  death  penalty  was  visited  in  France  as  late  as  1100  upon  116 
kinds  of  crimes;  thieves  were  broken  on  the  wheel,  murderers  were  hanged; 
later  all  were  broken  on  the  wheel.  Between  1770  and  1780  a  certain  L. 
was  broken  on  the  wheel  for  stealing  linen,  and  another  thief  for  having 
stolen  cheese.  In  1666  in  Auvergne  there  were  276  individuals  hanged, 
44  beheaded,  32  broken  on  the  wheel,  3  burned,  and  28  sent  to  the  galleys. 
In  a  single  province  there  were  more  persons  executed  than  are  now  con- 
victed in  all  France. 


384  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§209 

when  he  comes  to  deal  with  minor  offenses;  he  will  give  months 
in  prison  instead  of  days.  No  judges,  moreover,  even  in  the 
same  country  and  when  it  is  a  question  of  identically  the  same 
crime,  agree  exactly  upon  the  sentence.  Is  it  possible  to  believe 
in  an  eternal  and  absolute  principle  of  justice  among  men  when 
we  see  this  pretended  justice  vary  so  greatly  within  a  brief 
interval  of  space  or  time;  when  we  see  bigamy  and  rape  punished 
so  differently  in  England  and  in  Germany;  when  we  see  that  not 
so  many  years  ago  a  Jew  who  accosted  a  Catholic  prostitute 
was  condemned  to  death,  as  was  likewise  a  Catholic  who  al- 
lowed an  involuntary  blasphemy  to  escape  him,  while  infanti- 
cide, incest,  and  rape  were  tolerated?  Do  we  not  even  to-day 
see  the  right  of  pardon  and  the  theory  of  limitations  still  in 
force,  as  if  the  favor  of  the  king  or  the  lapse  of  time  could  change 
the  depraved  nature  of  the  criminal  or  make  him  less  likely  to 
relapse  into  crime? 


CHAPTER  II 

PENALTIES  ACCORDING  TO  CRIMINAL  ANTHROPOLOGY  —  FINES  — 
PROBATION  SYSTEM  —  INSANE  ASYLUMS  —  INSTITUTIONS 
FOR  THE  INCORRIGIBLE  —  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 

§  2X0. 

OF  all  the  criticisms  raised  by  punishment  the  most  impor- 
tant is  surely  that  which  concerns  its  application,  especially 
since  the  fruitful  labors  of  Ferri,  Garofalo,  Van  Hamel,  Viazzi, 
and  Sighele  have  not  only  corrected  what  there  was  irrational 
about  repression,  but  have  brought  it  into  harmony  with  our 
juridical  ideas.  Now,  when  once  it  has  been  demonstrated  that 
the  penalty  is  not  an  equivalent  of  compensation  to  offended  so- 
ciety, or  a  sort  of  excommunication  inflicted  by  lay  priests  with 
more  thought  of  the  crime  than  of  the  criminal,  we  see  that 
punishment  must  change  its  character.  We  must  have  in  view 
the  welfare  of  society  more  than  the  punishment  of  the  crim- 
inal, and  the  criminal  and  his  victim  more  than  the  crime.  The 
fear  inspired  by  a  man  who  suddenly  commits  a  murder  for  a 
question  of  honor,  or  for  a  political  idea,  is  very  different  from 
the  fear  we  have  of  a  man  who  puts  a  climax  on  a  life  of  crime 
with  an  assassination  for  the  purpose  of  theft  or  rape.  In  the 
first  case  the  punishment  is  almost  useless,  the  crime  itself 
being  so  grave  a  punishment  that  it  is  certain  the  offender  will 
never  repeat  it.  In  the  second  case  every  delay  and  every 
mitigation  of  the  penalty  is  a  peril  for  honest  men. 

Thus  in  cases  of  assault  it  is  absurd  to  establish,  as  the  codes 
do,  a  great  differentiation  according  to  the  seriousness  and  du- 
ration of  the  effects,  especially  since  antiseptic  methods  now 
hasten  the  cure;  for  the  murderer  does  not  measure  his  blows, 
and  it  is  only  purely  by  chance  if  they  are  not  mortal.  On  the 
contrary,  in  crimes  of  this  kind  we  must  observe  carefully  to 
see  whether  the  guilty  person  is  a  respectable  man  and  whether 


386  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§210 

he  had  serious  provocation.  If  this  is  the  case,  he  belongs  in 
the  category  of  criminals  of  passion;  while  if  the  crime  has  a 
slight  motive,  or  has  been  premeditated  with  accomplices,  and 
the  persons  in  question  are  habitual  criminals,  the  slightest 
assault,  the  unsuccessful  attempt,  ought  to  be  punished  as  a 
serious  crime,  in  order  to  prevent  fatal  relapses  into  crime.  In 
this  case  we  ought  to  take  no  account  of  the  quarrel  of  the  two 
parties,  who  are  not  at  all  interested  in  what  happens  to  others, 
for  the  State  has  the  general  welfare  to  care  for. 

"It  is  impossible,"  says  Ferri,  very  rightly,  "to  separate 
the  crime  from  the  criminal,  as  it  is  impossible,  in  drawing  up 
a  penal  code,  to  suppose  an  average  criminal  type,  which,  in 
reality,  one  never  meets  in  any  case.  Now  what  does  the  judge 
do.f*  Before  him  is  a  pair  of  scales.  In  one  of  the  pans  he  puts 
the  crime,  in  the  other  the  penalty.  He  hesitates,  then  dimin- 
ishes one  side  and  adds  to  the  other,  expecting  thus  to  measure 
the  social  adaptibility  of  the  criminal.  But,  having  once 
pronounced  the  sentence,  the  judge  does  not  concern  himself 
to  know  whether  the  person  condemned  falls  again  into  the 
same  crime.  What  does  he  know  of  the  application  of  the 
penalty,  and  of  the  effect  that  it  has  upon  the  criminal  to  be 
deprived  of  his  liberty?  Further,  when  a  criminal  is  sentenced 
for  20  years  but  reformed  in  10,  why  keep  him  there  for  10 
years  longer,  when  another,  to  whom  it  would  be  useful  to 
remain  in  prison  longer,  is  liberated  at  the  end  of  5  years  .5* 
Crime  is  like  sickness.  The  remedy  should  be  fitted  to  the 
disease.  It  is  the  task  of  the  criminal  anthropologist  to  deter- 
mine in  what  measure  it  should  be  applied.  What  should  we 
say  of  a  physician  who,  stopping  at  the  door  of  a  hospital  ward, 
should  say  to  the  patients  brought  to  him,  'Pneumonia?  Syrup 
of  rhubarb  for  15  days.  Typhus?  Syrup  of  rhubarb  for  a 
month ' ;  and  then  at  the  end  of  the  time  named  turn  them  out 
of  doors,  cured  or  not?" 

In  order  to  avoid  these  faults  the  penalty  should  be  indeter- 
minate, and  should  be  subdivided  according  to  the  principle  of 
Cicero:  "A  natura  hominis  discenda  est  natura  juris."  ^  We 
must  make  a  difference  according  to  whether  we  have  under 
our  eyes  a  born  criminal,  an  occasional  criminal,  or  a  criminal 
by  passion.  In  the  case  of  every  criminal  in  whose  case  the 
crime  itself  and  the  personal  conditions  show  that  reparation 

^  "The  nature  of  law  is  to  be  learned  from  the  nature  of  man." 


§211]      PENALTIES,  FINES,  PROBATION  SYSTEM         387 

of  the  damage  is  not  a  sufficient  social  sanction,  the  judge 
should  give  sentence  of  imprisonment  for  an  indeterminate 
time  in  a  criminal  asylum,  or  in  the  institutions  (agricultural 
colonies  or  prisons)  for  occasional  criminals,  adults  or  minors. 
The  carrying  out  of  the  sentence  should  be  regarded  as  the 
logical  and  natural  continuation  of  the  work  of  the  judge,  as 
a  function  of  practical  protection  on  the  part  of  special  organs. 
The  commission  for  carrying  out  penal  sentences  should  include 
expert  criminal  anthropologists,  representing  the  judge,  the 
defense,  and  the  prosecution.  These  men,  together  with  ad- 
ministrative officers,  would  stand,  not  for  neglecting  and  for- 
getting the  prisoner  as  soon  as  sentence  is  pronounced,  as 
happens  now,  but  for  a  humanitarian  work  which  would  be 
efficacious  for  the  protection,  now  of  society  against  the  libera- 
tion of  dangerous  criminals,  now  of  the  individual  against  the 
execution  of  a  sentence  which,  in  his  case,  has  been  proved  to 
be  excessive.  It  is  apparent,  then,  that  conditional  liberation 
is  bound  up  with  the  principle  of  the  indeterminate  sentence. 

§  211.  Penalties  other  than  Imprisonment 

We  ought  as  much  as  possible  to  avoid  the  short  and  repeated 
sentences  to  prison,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  school  of 
crime,  and  especially  of  associated  crime,  the  most  dangerous 
of  all.  "They  prevent  any  cure,  they  render  impossible  any 
continuous  effort,  and  they  give  the  criminal  a  sort  of  dis- 
tinction, for  there  are  many  prisoners  who  mark  on  their  caps 
the  number  of  their  sentences."^  "We  might  say,"  writes 
Krohne,2  "that  most  countries  have  adopted  the  principle  of 
sending  to  prison  as  many  men  as  possible,  as  often  as  possible, 
and  for  as  short  a  period  as  possible."  He  might  have  added 
that  they  do  this  in  a  way  to  make  the  prison  do  as  little  good 
as  possible  and  as  much  harm  as  possible.  I  have  seen  in 
prison  11  children  arrested  under  the  very  grave  charge  of  being 
a  band  of  malefactors,  for  having  stolen  a  herring,  and  4  others, 
who  had  stolen  a  bunch  of  grapes.  At  the  same  time  three 
ministers  in  the  legislative  chamber  were  defending  a  thief 

»  Aspirail,  "Cumulative  Punishments,"  London,  1892. 
«  "Handbuch  der  Gefangnislcunde." 


388  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§212 

who  had  stolen  20  millions.  According  to  Joly  there  have 
almost  always  been  in  France  as  many  as  3,000,000  men  who 
have  passed  at  least  24  hours  in  prison.  Each  year  more 
than  100,000  individuals  step  in  to  keep  up  or  raise  this 
formidable  number  by  taking  the  places  of  those  who  die. 
Berenger  reckons  that  the  isolation  (and  we  may  add,  the  im- 
prisonment) of  half  the  persons  sentenced  might  be  dispensed 
with.  Of  300,000  persons  convicted  57,000  were  for  violation 
of  police  ordinances,  etc.;  7000  or  8000  imprisoned  for  debt; 
5500  foreigners  expelled  from  the  country,  and  13,000  or  14,000 
awaiting  transfer;  and  12,000  serving  sentences  of  less  than 
six  days.  The  short  sentences,  almost  always  served  in  com- 
pany with  habitual  criminals,  can  have  no  intimidating  effect, 
especially  with  the  ridiculously  short  sentences  of  one  and  three 
days  possible  under  the  penal  codes  of  Holland  and  Italy. 
The  effects,  on  the  contrary,  are  disastrous,  since  they  make  it 
impossible  for  justice  to  be  taken  seriously.  By  taking  away 
all  fear  from  the  minds  of  the  persons  convicted,  they  drive 
them  irresistibly  to  new  offenses,  on  account  of  the  dishonor 
already  incurred. 

Accordingly,  other  repressive  measures  must  be  substituted 
for  imprisonment  for  minor  offenses,  such  as  confinement  at 
home,  security  for  good  behavior,  judicial  admonition,  fines, 
forced  labor  without  imprisonment,  local  exile,  corporal  pun- 
ishment, conditional  sentence.  Let  us  look  into  these  new 
means. 

§  212.   Corporal  Ptinishment  —  Confinement  at  Home 

Corporal  punishment  for  minor  offenses  would  be  an  excel- 
lent substitute  for  imprisonment,  if  applied  in  a  manner  in 
harmony  with  our  civilization.  Fasting,  the  douche,  and  hard 
labor  would  be  incontestably  very  efficacious,  and  at  the  same 
time  less  costly  and  easier  to  apply  in  varying  degrees.  In 
England  whipping  has  been  reintroduced,  and,  according  to 
Tissot,  with  success.  Not  less  useful  would  be  the  confinement 
of  the  guilty  person  in  his  own  home,  a  measure  already  em- 
ployed in  the  army. 


§214]      PENALTIES,  FINES.  PROBATION  SYSTEM         389 

§  213.  Fines 
After  corporal  punishment  the  penalty  which  is  most  easily- 
adjusted  and  most  efficacious,  provided  it  is  guaranteed  by 
bond,  is  a  fine.  Applied  in  proportion  to  the  wealth  of  the 
culprit,  it  would  contribute  to  diminish  the  enormous  judicial 
expenses,  while  striking  the  criminal  rich,  who  escape  punish- 
ment most  easily  on  their  most  vulnerable  side,  the  side  from 
which  they  are  most  often  impelled  toward  evil.  Bonneville 
de  Marsangy  truly  remarks  that  a  fine  is  the  most  liberal,  the 
most  divisible,  the  most  economical,  the  most  completely  re- 
missible punishment,  and  therefore  the  most  efficacious.  The 
more  we  advance,  he  says,  the  more  value  money  has  in  this 
sense,  that  the  number  of  pleasures  it  can  buy  becomes  il- 
limitable. Further,  the  number  of  those  who  use  money  for 
pleasure  increases  also,  so  that  the  more  we  advance  the 
more  useful  a  fine  becomes.  Fines  ought  aways  to  be  employed 
for  the  punishment  of  those  guilty  of  minor  offenses,  thus  di- 
minishing greatly  the  number  of  imprisonments.  According 
to  the  code  of  criminal  procedure  in  Holland,  proceedings 
against  a  person  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  are  not  begun  ii 
the  offender  on  being  called  is  willing  to  pay  the  maximum 
fine.  The  case  goes  on  only  in  the  event  of  refusal  to  pay. 
For  offenses  for  which  the  penalty  would  be  not  more  than  a 
month's  imprisonment,  this  function  could  be  exercised  by  the 
Chamber  of  Advice,  which  could  stop  the  proceedings  upon 
the  payment  of  a  fine  by  the  defendant.  Those  who  refused 
to  pay  would  be  sentenced  to  labor;  and  if  they  refused  to 
submit  to  this,  they  would  have  to  serve  a  prison  sentence 
made  as  severe  as  was  consistent  with  health  and  life. 

As  for  the  objection  that  the  fine  is  difficult  to  proportion, 
it  does  not  deserve  to  be  taken  seriously,  for  while  a  rich  man 
does  not  care  as  little  for  one  day  in  prison  as  a  vagrant  does, 
a  fine  of  10,000  francs  from  him  would  be  the  equivalent  of  a 
few  francs  from  a  poor  man. 

§  214.   Indemnity 

A  fine  permits  also  the  indemnifying  of  the  victim,  and  in 
this  way  we  strike  at  the  root  of  crime,  so  much  the  more  since 


390  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§215 

the  greatest  number  of  criminals  from  cupidity  are  drawn 
from  the  professional  and  other  well-to-do  classes.  The  penal 
judges  themselves  should  be  obliged  to  fix  the  amount  of 
damages  to  be  paid,  in  order  to  avoid  the  delay  and  discomfort 
of  a  new  trial  in  the  civil  court,  and  the  public  prosecutor  by 
virtue  of  his  office  should  call  for  the  fixing  of  damages  in  cases 
where,  whether  through  ignorance  or  fear,  the  victims  take  no 
action.  Bonneville  de  Marsangy  proposes  to  grant  the  victim 
a  special  lien  upon  the  property  of  the  convicted  person.  The 
indemnity  should  be  collected  by  the  state  along  with  the 
expenses  of  the  trial,  and,  if  necessary,  a  part  of  the  returns  of 
the  prisoner's  labor  should  be  retained  in  favor  of  the 
victim. 

§  21$.  Reprimand  and  Security 

The  judicial  reprimand  as  substitute  for  punishment  in  the 
case  of  minor  offenses  is  already  admitted  in  the  codes  of  Italy, 
Russia,  Spain,  and  Portugal;  also  in  the  canton  of  Vaud,  and 
in  the  Roman  law  which  prescribed,  "Moneat  lex  antequam 
puniat."  ^  However,  if  admonition  can  be  efficacious  in  cases 
of  the  pranks  of  the  young,  brawls,  and  insults,  it  is  not  serious 
enough  for  the  offenses  of  criminaloids  without  security,  which 
is  really  a  suspended  fine.  The  magistrate  obliges  the  culprit 
to  deposit  a  sum  of  money  which  shall  guarantee  society  against 
his  relapse.  The  deposit  is  made  for  a  definite  time,  after 
which  it  is  restored  to  him  if  his  conduct  has  been  irreprehen- 
sible.  This  practice  is  allowed  in  the  United  States  and  in 
Denmark,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  obligation  to  deposit  a 
sum  of  money  and  the  fear  of  losing  it  in  case  of  relapse  are 
much  more  eflFective  in  preventing  rioting  and  violence  than 
a  few  days  in  prison. 

The  security  for  good  conduct  is  no  less  useful.  "When  the 
magistrate,  in  place  of  inflicting  punishment  demands  of  the 
defendant  a  guarantee  that  he  will  not  disturb  the  peace  of 
another,  or  that  he  will  maintain  good  conduct,  or  abstain  from 
certain  definite  acts,  he  warns  him  that  in  case  of  a  new  offense 
he  will  be  subjected  to  a  more  severe  penalty  than  would  have 

^  "Let  the  law  warn  before  it  punishes." 


§  216]      PENALTIES,  FINES.  PROBATION  SYSTEM         391 

been  inflicted  for  the  first  transgression."  This  measure  has 
been  adopted  into  the  Spanish  code;  and  in  England  it  has 
been  in  operation  from  early  times  under  the  form  of  "recog- 
nizances to  keep  the  peace,"  and  of  "good  behavior,"  demanded 
by  the  justice  of  the  peace  from  bad  characters,  or  from  a  per- 
son who  has  threatened  another,  always  upon  the  demand 
of  the  person  threatened,  supported  by  evidence.  The  same 
method  has  been  authorized  since  1861  as  an  accessory  penalty 
in  convictions  for  crime. 

§  2i6.  Probation  System— Conditional  Sentence 

The  best  preventive  institution  for  minor  or  occasional 
criminals  is  the  probation  system,  widely  used  in  the  United 
States,  especially  for  young  criminals.  A  young  criminal,  not 
a  recidivist,  is  not  put  into  prison,  but  receives  an  admonition 
from  the  judge,  who  warns  him  that  at  the  first  relapse  he  will 
be  sentenced;  and  he  is  placed  under  the  surveillance  of  a 
special  officer  of  the  state.  If  this  officer  finds  that  in  his 
family  he  is  not  receiving  a  proper  education  or  sufficient  over- 
sight, he  is  put  into  a  special  home  for  neglected  children.  If 
he  commits  a  fresh  offense  he  is  again  brought  before  the  court 
and  sent  to  a  reform  school. 

This  system  has  given  such  excellent  results  in  Massachu- 
setts that  the  idea  was  suggested  of  extending  it  to  adult 
criminals,  and  the  law  of  1878  instituted  a  special  official,  the 
"  probation  officer."  This  officer  is  supposed  to  inform  himself 
with  regard  to  all  persons  convicted  of  misdemeanors  by  the 
courts  of  Boston,  and  to  determine,  by  the  aid  of  the  informa- 
tion received,  whether  the  offenders  are  capable  of  being  re- 
formed without  the  need  of  the  infliction  of  a  penalty.  He  is 
present  at  the  trials  of  all  those  for  whom  repressive  measures 
do  not  seem  to  be  necessary,  and  after  having  made  known  the 
results  of  his  investigations  (of  which  the  principal  aim  is  to 
discover  whether  there  has  been  a  previous  conviction),  he  asks 
that  the  culprit  be  released  on  probation.  If  the  court  con- 
sents to  this  the  culprit  is  put  on  probation  for  a  period  which 
may  vary  from  two  months  to  twelve,  under  conditions  imposed 
by  the  court.     The  probation  officer  formally  undertakes  to 


392  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§216 

see  that  the  conditions  are  carried  out,  and  has  the  right  at 
any  time  during  the  period  of  probation  to  arrest  the  culprit 
for  any  cause  whatsoever,  and  to  bring  him  before  the  court 
again  in  order  to  have  him  undergo  the  sentence  which  had 
been  suspended.  When  the  term  of  probation  has  expired,  the 
probation  officer  asks  that  the  sentence  be  annulled,  but  in  cer- 
tain cases  he  may  ask  that  the  time  first  fixed  be  prolonged. 

The  number  of  persons  released  on  probation  in  the  city  of 
Boston,  guilty  of  drunkenness,  receiving  stolen  goods,  petit 
larceny,  and  assault  and  battery,  reached  2803  during  the 
period  from  1879  to  1883.  Of  these,  223  did  not  conduct 
themselves  properly  during  the  term  of  their  probation,  were 
brought  to  court  again,  and  had  to  undergo  the  penalty;  44 
took  flight,  and  could  not  be  apprehended.  In  1888  out  of 
244  persons  put  upon  probation,  230  appeared  to  be  reformed. 
Many  of  these  promises,  without  doubt,  have  not  been  kept, 
but  on  the  whole  the  desired  effect  seems  really  to  have  been 
attained.  The  officer  declared  that  nearly  95%  of  the  persons 
under  his  charge  the  previous  year  had  maintained  good  con- 
duct and  had  been  released;  only  13,  recognized  as  incorrigible, 
had  had  to  undergo  punishment.  The  experiment  has  been 
so  successful  that  the  law  of  1880  extended  the  application  of 
it  to  the  whole  state  of  Massachusetts. 

An  analogous  system  was  put  into  operation  in  England  by 
the  "Probation  of  First  Offenders  Act"  of  1887;  but  while  in 
America  the  concurrence  and  cooperation  of  the  probation 
officer  guarantee  the  good  conduct  of  the  culprit,  in  England 
the  pledge  of  the  offender  himself  is  required,  or  at  least  the 
concurrence  of  a  bondsman  whose  assistance  will  be  most 
efficacious,  since  he  is  stimulated  by  the  thought  that  a  fresh 
offense  will  forfeit  the  bond.  Further,  the  Enghsh  law  demands 
special  grounds  for  a  release  on  probation,  and  allows  the 
magistrate  to  fix  the  time  without  the  intervention  of  any 
special  officer.  According  to  a  letter  of  Colonel  Howard  pub- 
lished by  Professor  von  Liszt,  the  number  of  persons  condi- 
tionally released  between  1887  and  1897  reached  20,000,  with 
9%  of  recidivisms.^ 

1  "Bulletin  of  the  International  Union  of  Criminal  Law,"  May,  1897. 


§217]      PENALTIES,  FINES,  PROBATION  SYSTEM         393 

In  Belgium  this  institution,  introduced  by  law  in  1888,  bore 
immediate  fruit.  The  minister  of  justice  reported  to  the 
chamber  in  1891  that  of  449,070  persons  convicted,  27,564  were 
conditionally  released  and  only  2%  relapsed  into  crime.  These 
persons  admitted  to  probation  had  been  convicted  for  damage 
to  property,  blackmail,  fraud,  breach  of  trust,  defamation  of 
character,  seduction  of  minors,  marriage  brokage,  indecent 
exposure,  threats,  adulteration,  unintentional  injuries,  appro- 
priation of  lost  objects,  mendicity,  vagabondage,  the  carrying 
and  sale  of  forbidden  weapons,  unintentional  homicides,  kid- 
napping, attempted  rape,  arson,  and  fraudulent  bankruptcy. 
The  crimes  handled  in  this  fashion,  then,  were  mostly  those 
that  are  committed  by  occasional  offenders,  and  only  a  few 
such  as  born  criminals  commit. 

In  France  also  this  new  institution  has  been  tried  since  the 
passage  of  the  Berenger  Law  in  1891.  M.  Dumas,  director 
of  penal  affairs,  reported  in  1893  upon  the  first  nine  months' 
experience  with  the  law.  The  correctional  tribunals  had  pro- 
nounced 11,768  conditional  sentences,  of  which  7362  were  for 
imprisonment  and  4406  were  fines.  This  was  out  of  a  total  of 
162,582,  of  which  97,245  were  prison  sentences  and  15,337  were 
fines.  Hence  the  sentences  suspended  represented  7.5%  of  the 
prison  sentences  and  6.7%  of  the  fines. 

In  New  Zealand  and  Australia  in  the  first  period  of  two 
years,  according  to  the  report  of  the  minister  of  justice,  the 
results  of  the  experiment  were  excellent.  Of  121  persons 
admitted  to  probation,  58  had  conducted  themselves  properly, 
9  had  not  fulfilled  the  obligations  imposed,  1  had  taken  flight, 
and  53  were  still  in  a  state  of  probation  at  the  end  of  the  second 
year.  From  the  1st  of  October,  1886,  to  the  31st  of  Decem- 
ber, 1888,  in  New  Zealand,  according  to  the  report  of  Captain 
Hume,  sentence  was  suspended  and  replaced  by  probation  for 
203  persons,  of  whom  70%  appeared  to  be  reformed  and  5% 
were  arrested  again. 

§  217.  The  Reformatory  at  Elmira 
Another  method  of  applying  the  principle  of  which  we  have 
been  speaking  is  found  in  the  Elmira  Reformatory,  which  was 


394  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REIHEDIES        [§217 

created  by  Brockway  under  the  inspiration  of  my  "Homme 
Criminel,"  as  he  himself  says,  and  of  which  Winter,  Way,  and 
ElHs  have  given  good  descriptions.^  To  this  estabHshment  are 
regularly  sent  only  young  men  between  16  and  30  years  of  age, 
guilty  for  the  first  time  of  a  minor  offense.  The  law  grants 
unlimited  authority  to  the  board  of  directors, ^  who  may  set 
the  prisoners  at  liberty  at  any  time  before  the  expiration  of 
the  sentence.  The  liberation  is  to  be  based  upon  a  strong 
conviction  that  the  culprit  is  reformed.  The  only  formality 
which  accompanies  it  is  the  word  of  honor  that  he  gives  the 
superintendent.  However,  though  the  board  can  shorten  the 
sentence  for  the  better  prisoners,  it  cannot  lengthen  it  for 
the  others. 

Brockway  concentrates  all  his  efforts  upon  gaining  A  knowl- 
edge of  the  young  criminal,  of  his  psychological  conditions,  of 
the  environment  in  which  he  has  Hved,  and  of  the  causes  which 
have  contributed  to  debase  him.  From  these  he  deduces  the 
means  to  bring  about  his  reformation.  He  sets  himself  to 
develop  the  criminal's  muscular  system  by  douches,  massage, 
gymnastics,  and  by  a  proper  dietary,  and  to  strengthen  his  will 
by  making  him  take  part  in  procuring  his  own  liberation. 
Immediately  upon  arriving  at  the  prison  the  prisoner  takes  a 
bath,  is  then  clothed  in  the  uniform  of  the  prison,  is  photo- 
graphed, examined,  and  vaccinated.  For  two  days  he  is  shut 
up  in  his  cell  to  meditate  upon  his  crime  and  to  prepare  him- 
self for  reformation.  The  third  day  he  is  brought  before  the 
superintendent,  who  places  him,  according  to  his  tendencies 
and  schooling,  in  a  school  or  industrial  class;  and  he  is  made 
to  understand  his  duties  and  the  conditions  upon  which  he 
may  regain  his  liberty.  He  is  instructed  in  a  trade  (more  than 
75%  of  the  prisoners  know  none)  which  shall  permit  him  to 
earn  his  living  after  his  liberation.  This  is  the  first  care  of  the 
management. 

1  Alexander  Winter,  "The  New  York  Reformatory  at  Elmira,"  with 
preface  by  Havelock  Ellis,  London,  1891;  "Fifteenth  Annual  Report  of 
the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  New  York  State  Reformatory  at  Elmira," 
Jan.,  1891. 

2  The  board  of  directors  consists  of  the  superintendent  and  five  other 
members  appointed  ^by  the  governor  of  the  state  with  the  consent  of  the 
Senate. 


§217]      PENALTIES,  FINES.  PROBATION  SYSTEM         395 

The  young  prisoners  are  divided  into  three  classes,—  the  good, 
the  medium,  and  the  bad  or  least  corrigible.  Each  prisoner 
is  marked  monthly  according  to  conduct,  work,  and  progress 
in  school,  with  a  maximum  of  three  for  each;  and  to  pass  to 
the  highest  class  he  must  obtain  the  maximum  of  nine  marks 
each  month  for  six  months.  Promotion  to  the  first  class 
carries  with  it  certain  advantages,  especially  with  regard  to 
correspondence;  such  as  receiving  visits,  having  books,  and 
eating  at  a  common  table  instead  of  in  a  separate  cell.  Finally 
the  better  prisoners  are  permitted  to  take  walks  together  in 
the  field,  and  responsible  tasks  are  given  to  them,  such  as 
superintendence  of  the  other  prisoners.  But  just  as  they  may 
win  a  place  in  the  first  class,  so  by  neghgence  or  bad  conduct 
they  may  fall  out  of  it.  In  this  case  they  are  put  back  into 
the  third  class,  and  must  submit  to  harder  work  in  order  to 
regain  their  position.  Brockway,  taking  account  of  the  apti- 
tude and  physical  strength  of  each  prisoner,  fixed  at  the  begin- 
ning of  each  month  the  amount  of  work  that  he  must  accomplish 
in  order  to  obtain  the  maximum  number  of  good  marks. 

Each  week  there  is  published  in  the  reformatory  the  "Sum- 
mary," a  paper  conducted  exclusively  by  the  prisoners  them- 
selves. It  contains  a  review  of  the  political  events  of  the 
week,  taken  from  the  better  American  newspapers;  in  addition 
there  are  items  with  regard  to  the  life  in  the  institution  itself, 
lectures  that  have  been  held,  promotions  and  degradations,  and 
the  hberation  of  prisoners.  I  have  been  receiving  this  paper 
for  a  year,  and  find  that  no  juristic  organ  in  Italy  or  France 
is  so  rich  in  news  and  especially  in  information  as  regards 
criminality. 

All  the  work  of  the  institution,  even  to  the  superintendence 
and  guarding,  is  done  by  the  prisoners  themselves,  so  that  the 
expense  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  At  the  same  time  the  work 
of  the  prisoners  is  chosen  with  a  view  to  fitting  them  for  life  in 
society,  and  not  to  making  the  institution  pay  a  profit.  The 
prisoners  in  the  first  class  are  intentionally  exposed  to  various 
kinds  of  temptations.  After  six  months  Brockway  proposes 
to  the  board  that  they  be  given  conditional  liberty.  The  board 
has  a  right  to  refuse  permission,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  always 


396  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§217 

authorizes  the  hberation  when  Brockway  considers  it  advis- 
able. The  release  takes  place,  however,  only  after  permanent 
employment  has  been  found  for  the  prisoner.  After  being 
liberated  he  must  give  account  of  himself  regularly  for  the  first 
six  months  at  least,  and  receives  complete  liberty  only  at  the 
end  of  a  year  of  good  conduct. 

This  is,  then,  the  probation  system  perfected.  No  one  is  a 
warmer  partisan  than  I  myself  of  this  reform,  which  is  the 
first  practical  application  of  my  studies.  I  believe  firmly  that 
the  individual  and  physical  study  of  each  criminal,  with  prac- 
tical, individualized  instruction,  can  but  have  excellent  results 
when  applied  to  criminaloids.  In  these  it  will  inculcate  espe- 
cially the  habit  of  working. 

But  for  born  criminals  this  method  does  not  seem  to  me 
equally  efficacious.  When  I  see  that  49%  of  the  inmates  of  the 
Elmira  Reformatory  are  completely  lacking  in  moral  sensibility, 
that  12%  have  left  home  before  they  were  14  years  old,  that 
37%  come  from  drunken  or  epileptic  parents,  and  that  56% 
show  no  signs  of  repentance,  I  do  not  believe  that  they  can  be 
reformed  by  hot  and  cold  baths,  great  activity,  and  a  sound 
education.  I  feel  this  the  more  since  the  more  promising  chil- 
dren are  there  in  limited  numbers  and  are  mingled  with  the 
adults.  In  fact,  if  we  examine  the  detailed  statistics  of  1722 
prisoners  set  at  liberty  after  remaining  at  Elmira  for  an  average 
of  20  months,  we  find  that  156  are  settled  in  other  states;  10 
are  dead;  128  have  not  yet  finished  the  term  of  their  probation; 
185  could  not  be  liberated  until  the  expiration  of  their  full  sen- 
tence; 271  have  been  given  partial  liberty  after  having  com- 
pleted six  months'  probation  satisfactorily;  47  were  arrested  for 
other  oflFenses  during  the  time  of  their  probation;  126  did  not 
furnish  the  reports  required,  and  disappeared;  79  have  had  to 
be  returned  to  the  reformatory;  25  returned  voluntarily,  having 
lost  their  employment.  Leaving  out  the  10  who  died,  we  have 
533  who  were  not  reformed,  that  is  to  say  31%,  a  proportion 
closely  approaching  that  which  I  have  given  for  born  criminals. 
Moreover,  the  supervision  of  the  individuals  under  probation 
is  so  superficial,  that  if  we  count  as  recidivists  those  who  have 
been  lost  sight  of,  we  shall  approach  much  more  nearly  to  the 


§  218]     PENALTIES,  FINES,  PROBATION  SYSTEM         397 

reality  than  if  we  presume  that  they  are  reformed  as  Brockway 
does. 

But  notwithstanding  these  defects  this  system,  together  with 
the  agricultural  colony  system,  is  the  best  possible  substitute 
for  the  prison. 

§  218.  Asylums  for  the  Criminal  Insane 
There  is  another  institution  which  we  believe  destined  to  pro- 
mote harmony  between  humanitarian  impulses  and  the  safety 
of  society;  namely,  asylums  for  the  criminal  insane.    We  might 
argue  indefinitely  upon  the  abstract  theory  of  punishment,  but 
the  whole  world  is  agreed  upon  one  point:  that  among  real  or 
supposed  criminals  there  are  many  who  are  insane.    For  these, 
prison  is  an  injustice  and  liberty  a  danger  to  which  in  Italy  we 
have  opposed  only  half -measures,  such  as  violate  both  mo- 
rality and  the  social  safety.    The  English,  who  have  arrived  at 
reforms  by  the  practice  of  true  liberty,  have  been  trying 
for  a  century  to  fill  up  this  most  dangerous  gap  in  the  social 
structure,  and  have  in  large  measure  succeeded  through  the 
institution  of  asylums  for  the  criminal  insane.    Beginning  with, 
1786,  dangerous  lunatics  were  confined  in  a  special  ward  in 
Bedlam,  from  which  they  could  not  be  released  except  by  the 
authority  of  the  Lord  Chancellor.^    In  1844  this  measure  ap- 
peared to  be  insufficient,  and  the  state  resolved  to  confine  235 
of  the  criminal  insane  in  the  private  institution  of  Fisherton 
House.    But  the  number  of  these  unfortunates  increased  con- 
tinually, and  special  institutions  were  finally  erected  at  Dun- 
drum  in  Ireland  in  1850,  at  Perth  in  Scotland  in  1858,  and  at 
Broadmoor  in  England  in  1863.     New  laws  ordered  that  not 
only  those  should  be  received  there  who  had  commited  a  crime 
in  a  state  of  insanity,  or  had  become  insane  during  their  trial, 
but  also  all  prisoners  who,  whether  from  insanity  or  from  idiocy, 
were  incapable  of  undergoing  prison  discipline.    These  last  are 
separated  from  the  others  and  placed  in  particular  sections;  if 
cured  they  are  returned  to  prison;  the  others  remain  in  prison 
as  long  as  a  royal  order  does  not  authorize  their  release.    The 

^  Stat.  34  George  III,  ch.  iv:  "Whoever  has  committed  manslaughter 
or  high  treason  shall  be  kept  in  a  place  of  safety  during  the  pleasure  of 
His  Majesty." 


398  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§218 

number  of  these  criminal  maniacs  in  1868  was  1244.^  The 
character  of  the  attendants,  the  attention  to  the  comfort  of  the 
inmates,  and  the  arrangements  for  their  employment  and  en- 
tertainment are  all  excellent,  yet  many  English  philanthropists 
think  that  they  have  not  yet  done  enough,  and  complain  that 
there  are  many  persons  in  the  ordinary  prisons  who  should  be 
confined  in  these  asylums  instead. 

In  America  there  are  similar  institutions,  including  an  annex 
to  the  great  penitentiary  at  Auburn. 

Now  I  ask  myself:  Is  it  possible  that  an  institution,  which 
has  been  found  useful  by  the  most  oligarchical  nation  in  the 
world  and  also  by  the  most  democratic,  which  in  24  years  has 
been  so  greatly  extended  without  yet  fully  meeting  the  demands 
upon  it,  —  is  it  possible  that  this  is  a  mere  luxury,  a  caprice  of 
Anglo-Saxon  race?  Does  it  not  rather  correspond  to  a  sad 
social  need,  and  ought  not  we,  here  in  Italy,  desire  to  see  it 
take  root  and  spread  abroad  in  our  land.'^  If  in  Italy  and  in 
France  the  number  of  the  criminal  insane  appears  to  be  much 
smaller,  this  is  because  the  public  mind  has  not  yet  grasped  the 
fact  that  a  great  number  of  criminal  acts  proceed  from  morbid 
impulses.  If  at  times  insanity  is  recognized  as  the  sole  cause 
of  a  crime  and  the  trial  is  stopped,  the  authorities  do  not  con- 
cern themselves  further.    Besides,  many  of  these  unfortunates 

^  On  Jan.  Ist,  1868,  there  were  in  Broadmoor  616,  of  whom  506  were 
men  and  110  women.     These  had  committed: 

Men      Women    Total 

Capital  crimes 188  69  257 

Simple  crimes 152  52  204 

Attempted  suicide 74  29  103 

Already  epileptic 43  6  49 

"       maniacs 81  20  101 

From  1862  to  1868  there  were  770  entries,  39  persons  were  cured,  55 
died,  and  5  escaped. 

In  Dundrum  (Ireland),  from  1850  to  1863  there  were  received  250 
insane  criminals,  of  whom  173  were  men  and  77  were  women.  Of  these 
38  were  cured,  41  died,  and  3  escaped.     Their  crimes  were  as  follows: 

Homicide 79 

Burglary 72 

Assault 30 

Theft 12 

Minor  offenses 32 

See  Pelman,  "  Psychiatrische  Reiseerinnerungen  aus  England,"  1870; 
"Seventh  Report  on  Criminal  Lunatics,"  1869. 


§218]       PENALTIES,  FINES,  PROBATION  SYSTEM 


399 


have  periods  of  rationality  in  the  midst  of  their  insanity,  and 
are  supposed  on  this  account  to  be  merely  feigning.^ 

From  another  point  of  view  the  presence  of  these  unfortunates 
in  penal  institutions  is  an  oflFense  to  the  moral  sense,  and  it  is 
not  without  danger,  both  for  society  and  for  disciphne;  they 
can  neither  be  cared  for  nor  watched  properly  because  of  lack 
of  fit  quarters  and  of  a  suitable  organization.  Further,  they 
often  act  violently  and  without  sense  of  shame  toward  the  other 
prisoners,  and  are  so  much  the  more  dangerous  since  they  have 
sudden  fits  of  excitement,  often  for  the  most  trivial  reasons. 
Thus  an  insane  prisoner  killed  another  of  the  con\'icts  because 
he  would  not  black  his  shoes  for  him.  At  the  same  time  they 
obstinately  resist  the  prison  discipline,  show  themselves  indif- 
ferent to  punishment,  discontented,  and  defiant,  and  make 
themselves  the  center  and  pretext  of  continual  insurrections. 
If  they  are  kept  isolated  and  chained  in  cells,  as  is  too  largely 
the  custom,  inaction,  and  insufficient  food  and  light  soon  make 
them  the  prey  of  disease,  even  if  they  do  not  themselves  put  an 
end  to  their  unhappy  existence.  On  the  other  hand,  to  send 
them  to  ordinary  insane  asylumns  gives  rise  to  other  incon- 
veniences. They  take  their  vices  with  them,  and  become  the 
disseminators  of  sodomy,  flight,  rebellion,  and  theft,  to  the 
detriment  of  the  institution  and  of  the  other  patients,  who  are 
terrified  by  their  savage  and  obscene  manners  and  by  the 
unhappy  reputation  that  has  preceded  them. 

There  is  another  class  of  the  insane  who,  at  a  certain  period 
of  their  fives,  have  been  victims  of  a  criminal  impulse.  These 
have  not  the  depraved  tendencies  of  the  first  class,  but  they  are 
not  less  dangerous,  for  they  are  often  irresistibly  driven  to  sav- 
age and  unforeseen  acts.  They  wound  persons  and  burn  build- 
ings, surmounting  with  remarkable  clearness  of  mind  all  the 
obstacles  that  oppose  them.  There  are  those  of  them  who  feign 
the  most  perfect  tranquiUity  in  order  to  obtain  their  Uberty  or 
to  combine  secretly  for  an  escape  or  a  plot.  They  do  not  avoid 
society  as  other  insane  persons  do,  but  tend  to  associate  among 
themselves;  and,  as  they  preserve  the  restlessness  of  mind  that 

1  Lombroso,  "SuU'  Istituzione  dei  Manicomi  Criminali,"  1872;  Tam- 
burini,  "Siii  Manicomi  Criminali,"  1873. 


400  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§218 

they  had  before  they  became  criminal  or  insane,  they  continu- 
ally imagine  that  they  are  maltreated  or  insulted,  and  succeed 
in  inspiring  others  w4th  their  false  ideas  and  in  giving  form 
little  by  little  to  plans  for  flight  or  rebellion.  This  again  differ- 
entiates them  from  ordinary  lunatics,  who  are  quite  incapable 
of  such  enterprises,  but,  like  somnambulists,  live  isolated  in  an 
imaginary  world. 

All  alienists  are  in  agreement  as  to  these  facts,  and  I  myself 
have  had  direct  proof  of  them  in  the  institutions  of  which  I 
have  been  director.  Thus  Er.,  an  insane  person  already  im- 
prisoned for  receiving  stolen  goods,  complained  incessantly  of 
the  injustice  of  the  courts  and  of  our  treatment  of  him,  which 
he  did  not  find  sufficiently  respectful.  He  wrote  absurd  letters 
of  protest  to  the  King  and  to  the  prefect.  One  day  he  appeared 
entirely  changed,  he  had  become  humble  and  well-behaved;  he 
had  set  himself  to  plotting  with  three  other  patients  for  a  slaugh- 
ter of  the  attendants,  and  a  Uttle  later,  while  the  attendants 
were  engaged  in  distributing  the  soup  at  noon,  he  and  his  com- 
panions tore  up  part  of  the  paving  of  the  court  and  began  to 
throw  the  stones  in  all  directions.  A  few  years  later  an  epileptic 
homicide  did  the  same  thing  and  nearly  succeeded  in  putting 
the  whole  force  of  attendants  to  flight.  Another  insane  crim- 
inal, a  homicide  with  hallucinations,  was  so  intelligent,  that 
although  he  was  a  poor  shoemaker  without  education,  he  was 
able  to  wnie  his  autobiography  in  a  style  worthy  of  Cellini. 
This  man  conducted  himself  properly  for  two  years,  but  one 
day  there  was  discovered  hidden  in  his  bed  a  bar  of  iron  which 
he  had  prepared  for  the  express  purpose  of  striking  myself. 
Another  day,  having  made  a  picklock  of  some  pieces  of  wood, 
he  opened  two  doors,  let  himself  dowTi  from  a  wnndow,  and  es- 
caped. All  investigators  who  have  treated  of  this  subject  give 
examples  of  the  danger  of  unexpected  relapse  into  morbid  ten- 
dencies on  the  part  of  individuals  apparently  harmless.^  The 
burgomaster  of  Gratz  some  years  ago  became  the  victim  of  a 
religious  monomaniac,  who  had  already  threatened  the  life  of 

*  "Annales  Medico-psychologiques,"  1846,  p.  16;  Falret,  "Sur  les 
Ali^n^s  Dangereux,"  1870;  Solbrig,  "Verbrechen  und  Wahnsinn,"  Munich, 
1870;   Delbriick,  "Zeitschrift  fur  Psychiatric,"  XX,  p.  478. 


§218]      PENALTIES,  FINES,  PROBATION  SYSTEM         401 

another  person.  Hatfield,  before  making  his  attempt  upon  the 
life  of  George  III,  had  attempted  to  kill  his  wife  and  three  chil- 
dren. Confined  in  Bedlam,  he  there  killed  an  insane  person. 
Booth,  the  assassin  of  Lincoln,  had  once  thro^vTi  himself  into 
the  sea,  to  speak,  as  he  said,  with  a  colleague  who  had  droT\-ned 
himself. 

The  harm  of  the  unrestrained  Hberty  given  to  insane  crim- 
inals ends  by  extending  itself  to  the  whole  nation.  This  is  not 
simply  because  these  unfortunates  turn  their  homicidal  thoughts 
towards  the  heads  of  the  nation,  but  especially  because,  being 
endowed  with  a  very  clear  mind  and  a  tendency  to  form  associ- 
ations, they  succeed,  when  the  moment  is  favorable,  in  forming 
a  partisan  band.  This  is  the  more  dangerous  because  the  leaders, 
lacking  balance  of  mind,  are  unable  to  control  themselves,  but 
act  upon  the  mind  of  the  mob  by  the  very  fascination  of  their 
strangeness,  and  succeed  in  drawing  them  bhndly  after  them. 
They  are,  we  might  say,  ferment  germs,  powerless  by  them- 
selves, but  terrible  in  their  effects  when  they  can  act  at  a  given 
temperature  and  upon  a  predisposed  organism.  Historic  ex- 
amples of  this  are  to  be  found  among  the  epidemics  of  insanity, 
in  the  INIiddle  Ages,  among  the  Mormons  and  Methodists  in 
America,  in  the  incendiaries  of  Normandy  in  1830,  and  in  those 
of  the  Commune  in  Paris.  We  know  now  that,  leaving  aside  the 
influence  of  certain  rare  idealists,  the  Commune  was  the  effect 
of  an  epidemic  delirium  called  forth  by  defeat  and  the  abuse 
of  absinthe,  but  especially  by  the  great  number  of  the  insane, 
ambitious,  homicidal,  or  even  paralytic,  freed  too  soon  from  the 
asylums,  who,  finding  in  this  over-excited  population  a  propi- 
tious soil,  united  and  put  into  action  their  disastrous  dreams. 
Laborde  ^  cites  at  least  eight  members  of  the  Commune  who 
were  notoriously  insane.  Such  were  Eude,  Ferre,  Goupil, 
Lunier,  and  Flourens,  and  such  was  B.,  who  nevertheless  was 
elected  by  10,000  votes.  The  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution 
also  were  often  provoked  by  the  delirium  of  homicidal  mono- 
maniacs hke  Marat  and  Teroigne.  The  Marquis  de  Sade  was 
president  of  the  section  of  the  "Pikemen." 

1  "Lea  Homines  de  I'lnsurrection  de  Paris  devant  la  Peychologie," 
1872. 


402  CREVIE:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REISIEDIES        [§218 

The  one  remedy  for  all  these  evils  is  unquestionably  the  in- 
stitution of  asylums  for  the  criminal  insane.  If  these  received 
legal  recognition  and  their  position  were  unequivocally  fixed, 
the  continual  conflict  between  justice  and  public  safety  would 
cease,  a  conflict  which  now  is  renewed  every  time  one  of  these 
unfortunates  comes  to  trial  and  an  attempt  is  made  to  deter- 
mine how  far  he  was  driven  by  morbid  impulses  and  how  far 
by  the  perversity  of  his  own  will.  In  doubt  the  judges  extri- 
cate themselves,  now  by  an  injustice,  now  by  an  imprudence  — 
the  latter  when  they  lighten  the  sentence  of  a  man  who  appears 
insane,  or  acquit  him  altogether;  the  former,  when  as,  alas,  too 
often  happens,  they  condemn,  perhaps  to  death,  one  whom  an 
alienist  would  recognize  at  once  as  insane. 

Many  will  object,  it  is  true,  that  if  we  allow  ourselves  to  be 
led  by  these  considerations  we  shall  end  by  punishing  no  one. 
But  the  same  objections  were  raised  against  those  who  opposed 
the  burning  of  those  insane  unfortunates  whom  men  called 
witches. 

This  position  should  not  be  ascribed  to  a  sentimental  pity, 
dangerous  to  others,  for  the  measure  is  preventive  even  more 
than  humanitarian;  since  if  those  unjustly  convicted  are  nu- 
merous, those  imprudently  acquitted  are  not  less  so.  The  thing 
to  be  done,  then,  is  to  prevent  them  from  returning  to  society, 
to  which  they  are  a  great  source  of  danger,  until  we  have  every 
assurance  that  they  have  become  perfectly  harmless. 

It  may  be  objected  again  that  it  is  easy  to  confuse  those  who 
feign  insanity  with  those  who  are  really  insane;  and,  in  fact, 
the  number  of  these  is  very  great  among  criminals.  But  the 
most  recent  studies  have  shown  us  that  mistakes  are  made  only 
because  so  many  observers  are  ignorant  of  the  connection 
between  moral  insanity  and  crime;  and  because,  moreover,  it 
is  very  difficult  to  make  a  true  diagnosis,  since  many  of  the 
persons  pretending  insanity  are  really  predisposed  to  it,  so  that 
in  a  short  time  they  become  actually  insane,  or  are  genuine 
insane  persons  who,  ignorant  ot  their  true  disease,  easily  pre- 
tend an  artificial  one.  Further,  these  patients  often  present 
very  rare  forms  of  mental  disturbance,  and  on  this  account  the 
distrust  of  the  physician  is  quite  rightly  aroused.    Jacobi  tells 


§218]      PENALTIES,  FINES,  PROBATION  SYSTEM         403 

that  he  had  to  change  his  opinion  four  times  about  an  insane 
person  who  appeared  to  be  feigning  insanity  but  proved  to  be 
really  insane.  A  thief  who  was  pronounced  by  Delbriick  to  be 
feigning  insanity  starved  himself  to  death.  Another  pretended 
that  he  had  in  his  right  leg  a  disease  that  he  had  in  reality  in 
his  left.  A  homicidal  monomaniac  imitated  in  prison  a  form  of 
insanity  which  he  did  not  have,  and  did  this,  as  he  told  me,  to 
escape  sentence.  But  if  some  criminals  really  succeed  in  feign- 
ing insanity,  the  perpetual  seclusion  in  a  hospital  for  the  insane 
wall  be  punishment  enough,  even  if  modern  society,  not  content 
with  defending  itself  against  them,  still  wishes  to  revenge  itself 
upon  them.  Insane  criminals,  in  fact,  complain  incessantly  of 
being  kept  in  the  hospitals,  and  demand  with  loud  cries  to  re- 
turn to  prison.  There  is,  for  example,  the  case  of  Trossarello, 
who  would  not  allow  his  counsel  to  defend  him  as  insane,  pre- 
ferring to  be  executed  to  being  immured  in  an  insane  asylum. 
Would  not  the  asylum  for  the  criminal  insane  be  the  best  means 
of  making  such  criminals  harmless?  I  do  not  know  whether 
Vacher  merely  pretended  to  be  insane,  or  was  really  so;  but 
if  he  had  been  permanently  confined  in  an  insane  asylum  the 
lives  of  several  men  would  have  been  spared. 

Wiedemeister  objects,  further,  that  the  asylums  for  the  crim- 
inal insane  in  England  are  often  the  theater  of  sad  scenes  of 
blood,  and  require  for  their  maintenance  three  times  the  expense 
of  the  others.  This  is  true,  for  the  tendency  to  make  plots, 
very  rare  in  the  ordinary  asylums,  is,  on  the  contrary,  very 
frequent  in  the  criminal  asylums,  since  the  inmates  know  that 
they  will  never  be  released,  and  furthermore,  being  conscious 
of  their  impunity,  destroy  clothing  and  utensils,  attack  the  at- 
tendants, wound,  and  kill.  In  1868  there  occurred  at  Broadmoor 
72  cases  in  which  attendants  were  injured,  two  of  them  very 
seriously;  and  the  daily  expense,  especially  great  because  of  the 
damage  done  by  the  insane  and  the  high  pay  given  the  attend- 
ants, reached  five  francs  for  each  insane  person.  There  is 
nothing,  however,  to  wonder  at  in  that,  nor  should  it  cause 
any  serious  opposition,  for  it  is  natural  that  the  bringing  to- 
gether of  so  many  dangerous  individuals  should  bring  great 
dangers  with  it,  especially  to  the  poor  attendants,  who,  not- 


404  CRIME:    ITS   CAUSES  AND   REMEDIES        [§  218 

withstanding  their  high  wages,  seldom  remain  long  in  the  ser- 
vice.^ But  if  it  were  not  for  the  asylums  for  the  criminal  insane 
these  things  would  occur  in  the  ordinary  asylums.  Besides, 
the  subdivisions  recently  introduced  by  Orange  at  Broadmoor 
have  greatly  improved  conditions.  First  the  convicts  are  sep- 
arated from  the  others;  then  those  who  have  been  indicted  but 
not  convicted;  finally  the  ordinary  prisoners,  who  have  been 
sentenced  to  short  terms  for  crimes  of  little  moment,  are  re- 
turned to  the  county  asylums.  The  government  has  carried 
the  reform  to  completion  and  removed  all  inconveniences  by 
setting  aside  one  wing  of  the  Woking  prison  for  convicts  who 
become  insane  while  in  prison. 

The  statistics  of  asylums  for  the  criminal  insane  show  that 
they  have  a  noticeably  lower  mortality  rate  than  the  general 
asylums.  This  is  an  encouragement  to  establish  more  of  these 
institutions,  and  at  the  same  time  a  proof  that  conditions  in 
them  are  not  as  bad  as  has  been  represented. 

The  expense  does  not  appear  to  be  so  excessive  when  one 
compares  it  with  the  cost  of  caring,  not  for  ordinary  insane 
persons,  but  for  the  violent  insane,  who,  needing  double  watch- 
fulness, occasion  a  considerable  expense.  It  is  necessary  also 
to  take  into  account  the  expense  occasioned  by  escapes,  fre- 
quent in  the  case  of  the  violent.  In  Massachusetts  this  expense 
has  been  estimated  at  not  less  than  $25  a  day  while  the  escaped 
lunatic  is  at  large.  This  is  even  one  of  the  reasons  that  led  the 
state  to  erect  an  asylum  for  the  criminal  insane.  We  may  add 
that  the  expense  could  be  considerably  diminished  by  trans- 
ferring to  the  asylum  a  number  of  the  better  penitentiary 
guards  at  an  advanced  pay;  in  this  way  the  frequent  changes 
of  attendants  would  be  avoided,  and  at  the  same  time  men 
accustomed  to  this  sort  of  danger  and  not  easily  intimidated 
would  be  secured.  Finally,  the  number  of  inmates  might  be 
cut  down  by  removing  criminals  who  become  inoffensive,  by 

1  Attendants  receive  an  average  compensation  of  from  £30  to  £40,  the 
head  attendant  from  £150  to  £175,  his  assistant  from  £40  to  £60.  Those 
who  are  married  have  a  family  apartment,  a  school  for  their  children,  a 
library,  reading-room,  and  smoking-room.  Yet  in  1867  69  gave  up  their 
positions,  and  64  in  1868.  In  Broadmoor  there  is  1  attendant  to  5  patients, 
in  Dundrum  1  to  12.  The  expense  for  clothing  destroyed  reached  £512  in 
one  year. 


§  218]     PENALTIES,  FINES,  PROBATION    SYSTEM        405 

eliminating  those  who  come  from  prison  in  an  acute  state  of 
insanity  and  are  therefore,  as  the  experience  of  Gutch  in  Bruch- 
sal  shows,  more  likely  to  be  cured,  and  also  by  retaining  in  the 
prison  infirmary,  under  strict  surveillance,  those  prisoners  who 
are  suspected  of  feigning  insanity. 


CHAPTER  III 

PENALTIES  ANTHROPOLOGICALLY  ADAPTED  TO  THE  SEX,  AGE, 
ETC.,  or  THE  CRIMINAL,  AND  TO  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  CRIME 

§  219.     Sex 

AS  I  have  shown  in  Chapter  XIV,  and  in  my  "Female 
Offender,"  we  may  conclude  that  the  true  born  criminal 
exists  among  women  only  in  the  form  of  the  prostitute,  who 
already  finds  in  her  lamentable  calling  a  substitute  for  crime. 
Most  female  criminals 

"  are  only  criminals  from  accident  or  passion,  passing  fre- 
quently from  one  to  the  other  of  these  two  classes.  They  very 
rarely  show  the  type  and  tendencies  of  the  criminal,  and  com- 
mit only  from  11%  to  20%  as  many  crimes  as  men.  They 
lead,  it  is  true,  in  poisoning,  abortion,  and  infanticide;  but  of 
the  highway  robberies  only  6%  to  8%  are  committed  by 
women." 

We  may  add  that  the  crimes  which  are  more  essentially 
feminine,  such  as  abortion  and  infanticide,  are  just  those  for 
which  there  is  least  need  of  punishment,  being  almost  always 
committed  at  the  suggestion  of  the  lover  or  husband.  It  is 
often  sufficient  to  separate  the  criminals. 

The  penalty  for  the  greater  number  of  female  criminals  could 
be  limited  to  a  reprimand  with  suspended  sentence,  except  in 
the  very  rare  cases  of  poisoning,  swindling,  or  homicide,  in 
which  it  would  be  necessary  to  confine  the  offender  in  a  con- 
vent, where,  on  account  of  their  great  susceptibility  to  sugges- 
tion, religion  could  be  substituted  for  the  eroticism  that  is  the 
most  frequent  cause  of  their  crimes.  I  have  had  proofs  of  this 
in  a  cellular  prison  under  my  charge,  where,  however,  the  nuns 
in  attendance  were  not  especially  well  fitted  for  their  duties. 
As  for  those  who  relapse  two  or  three  times  into  sexual  crimes, 
the  only  method  would  be  to  enroll  them  in  the  official  list  of 


§220]  PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  407 

prostitutes,  which  would  have  the  advantage  of  preventing 
clandestine  prostitution,  much  the  most  harmful  sort. 

Recognizing  the  great  importance  which  women  attach  to 
dress  and  ornament,  we  may  often  in  minor  offenses,  such  as 
thefts,  brawls,  and  slanders,  replace  a  prison  sentence  by  penal- 
ties which  will  touch  female  vanity,  such  as  cutting  the  hair, 
etc.  In  adopting  special  penalties  for  women  we  shall  only  be 
returning  to  usages  of  the  ancients,  the  Jews,  and  the  Germans. 
In  Russia  in  the  Middle  Ages  a  woman  who  struck  her  husband 
had  to  ride  upon  an  ass  with  her  face  toward  the  tail.  In 
England  women  who  quarreled  among  themselves  had  to  go 
through  the  village  with  a  weight  chained  to  their  foot;  sland- 
erers and  busybodies  had  to  wear  a  muzzle.^  Konrad  Celtes 
writes  in  his  "De  Origine,  Situ,  Moribus,  et  Institutionibus 
Germanise"  : 

"  Women  who  have  been  brought  into  disrepute  because  of 
witchcraft  or  superstitious  practices,  or  have  been  guilty  of 
infanticide  or  abortion,  have  various  punishments  inflicted 
upon  them;  being  either  sewed  up  in  sacks  and  drowned,  or 
even  burned  to  death,  or  buried  alive.  Yet  these  cruel  pun- 
ishments are  not  sufficient  to  prevent  their  continually  adding 
crime  to  crime."  ^ 

§  220.  Abortion 

The  crimes  of  abortion  which  do  not  have  professional  gain 
for  their  object  ought  to  be  punished  only  by  reprimand  or 
putting  upon  probation.  It  is  to  Balestrini  that  the  credit  is 
due  for  demonstrating  that  the  procuring  of  an  abortion  ought 
not  to  be  treated  as  a  crime;  ^  for  the  lawmaker  cannot  in 
this  matter  pretend  to  be  protecting  the  family,  since  this 
crime  is  most  often  committed  by  unmarried  mothers  just  with 
the  object  of  not  creating  an  illegitimate  family.  Regarded  as 
a  defense  of  the  person,  such  a  law  would  have  no  force  except 
where  the  abortion  was  procured  without  the  consent  of  the 
mother.     The  abstract  legal  object  is  equally  without  standing, 

1  "Revue  des  Revues,"  1895.  ,  t^    ..     .•        /-.     »  loor.. 

2  Lombroso,  in  "Proceedings  of  Second  Penitentiary  Congress,  189o, 
Moraglia,  in  "Archivio  di  Psichiatria,"  1894-95.  .  .  „„  j-Tr,fonf^  » 

3  RaffkeUo  Balestrini,  "Aborto,  Infanticidio,  ed  Esposizione  d  Infante. 


408  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§221 

since  society  has  nothing  to  gain  from  the  birth  of  illegitimate 
children.  The  fiction  of  civil  law  which  extends  personality 
to  unborn  children  cannot  be  carried  over  into  criminal  law. 
The  legal  existence  of  the  foetal  life  as  a  part  of  the  social 
structure  is,  moreover,  very  contestable;  an  embryo  does  not 
represent  a  real  human  being,  but  a  being  stiU  at  the  stage  of 
animahsm,  or  rather  a  lower  animal,  which,  in  the  earlier  months, 
it  would  take  an  embryologist  to  recognize  as  human  at  all. 
No  right  is  injured,  then,  by  an  abortion  produced  by  a  woman 
upon  herself,  not  even  by  the  danger  which  she  incurs,  no  one 
being  able  to  prevent  another  from  injuring  himself. 

We  may  add  that  indictments  and,  still  more,  convictions  are 
very  rare,  and  that  there  is  the  risk  of  an  unjust  conviction 
from  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  certain  proof  except  in  very 
rare  cases.^  In  Italy  in  1863  out  of  9  women  tried  4  were 
acquitted;  in  1870  there  were  4  acquittals  to  8  indictments, 
and  in  1881  the  same  number  to  13  indictments.^  In  Eng- 
land from  1847  to  1849  there  were  only  3  cases  of  abortion 
tried,  in  1850  there  were  5,  in  1851  4,  in  1852  9,  in  1853 
17,  out  of  which  number  there  were  12  acquittals.  In  1853 
there  was  not  a  single  trial  for  abortion  in  Scotland,  and  the 
same  was  true  in  Wurtemberg  in  1853-54.  And  the  rarity 
of  convictions  (28%)  not  only  casts  ridicule  upon  the  law, 
but  also  makes  it  appear  that  there  is  injustice  in  the  rare 
cases  where  the  penalty  is  exacted.' 

§  221.  Infanticide 

All  these  arguments  are  applicable  to  infanticide  also.  Birth, 
the  later  development  of  the  embryo,  is  only  an  unjust  cause  of 
infamy  to  the  woman  without  being  any  advantage  to  society, 
to  which  on  the  contrary  it  becomes  a  charge;  for  if  the  infant 
is  abandoned  it  is  received  into  a  foundling  asylum,  where  it 
is  legally  assassinated,  the  mortality  in  these  establishments 
being  so  great  as  to  be  like  a  permanent  epidemic.  Thus  in 
Syracuse  the  mortality  of  foundlings  reaches  73%,  at  Modica, 
99%,  and  at  Turin,  50%. 

*  Raffaello  Balestrini,  op.  cit. 

2  "Statistiche  Giudiziarie  Penali." 

'  Beccaria,  "  Dei  Delitti  e  delle  Pene." 


§£21]  PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  409 

It  may  be  objected  that  we  ought  not  to  interfere  with  the 
increase  of  the  population,  but  in  that  case  we  ought  to  pass 
laws  against  onanism.  All  thinkers  recognize  that  law  is  a 
relation  of  man  to  man,  having  for  its  object  to  make  possible 
the  existence  of  man  in  society;  that  it  has  two  terms,  man  and 
society,  but  man  only  in  so  far  as  he  is  a  member  of  society. 
In  the  case  of  the  foetus,  and  in  the  case  of  the  newly  born 
child  as  well,  we  can  recognize  only  one  of  these  two  terms 
fully;  we  may  even  say  that  the  social  element  is  completely 
lacking.  "It  is  evident,  in  fact,  that  both  are  rather  under 
the  guardianship  of  the  mother,  who  constitutes  their  whole 
environment,  than  under  that  of  society,  of  which  they  are 
still  not  directly  a  part."  ^  The  alarm  of  society  for  the  life  of 
an  infant  of  whose  existence  it  is  still  ignorant  (for  infanticide 
"honoris  causa"  must  necessarily  take  place  before  the  birth 
of  the  infant  is  known)  ought  to  be  much  less  than  that  for  the 
loss  of  an  adult  in  the  flower  of  his  age.^ 

We  must,  then,  deduct  from  the  theoretical  evil  caused  by 
the  murder  of  the  new-born  child,  the  amount  of  certain  or 
probable  evil  which  would  come  from  the  preservation  of  a  life 
which  exposes  the  father  and  mother  to  an  irreparable  loss  of 
honor,  compromises  the  peace  of  one  family  and  sometimes  of 
several,  or,  at  least,  in  case  the  child  is  deserted,  puts  society 
in  a  perplexing  situation;  for,  on  the  one  hand,  the  imperious 
voice  of  charity  imposes  upon  society  the  necessity  of  receiving 
the  innocent  foundling,  while  on  the  other  hand  reason  and 
experience  teach  that,  by  constantly  accepting  the  bringing  up 
of  these  children  as  an  obligation,  it  incurs  the  risk  of  encour- 
aging desertion  and  makes  charity  degenerate  into  a  reward 
of  immorality.^ 

As  for  the  direct  harm  caused  by  infanticide,  it  consists  in 
the  suppression  of  an  existence  so  threatened,  by  the  frequency 
of  still-births  and  the  great  mortality  of  foundlings,  that  it 
does  not  all  approach  the  harm  done  by  an  ordinary  homicide. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  a  penitentiary  sentence 

1  Tissot,  "Introd.  Philosoph.  k  I'fitude  du  Droit  Pdnal." 

»  Balestrini,  op.  cit.  . 

»  Boccardo,  "Dizionano  di  Economica  Politica. 


410  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§222 

would  have  the  infallible  effect  of  depraving  the  woman,  and 
of  taking  from  her,  together  with  the  habit  of  housework,  the 
means  of  rehabilitating  herself  when  her  term  had  expired.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  we  base  the  penalty  upon  the  fear  of  a  relapse, 
it  can  have  no  hold  upon  the  infanticide,  who  is  almost  invari- 
ably a  criminal  by  accident  or  by  passion,  rarely  a  recidivist. 
Probation,  with  security  for  good  behavior,  is  here,  then,  very 
generally  sufficient.  Limiting  in  this  way  the  repressive  meas- 
ures against  women,  we  shall  prevent  those  decisions  of  judges 
and  juries  which  seem  so  unjust  when  we  compare  the  treat- 
ment of  women  with  that  of  men.  Out  of  100  of  each  sex  who 
came  to  trial  at  the  Assizes  in  Italy,  34  women  and  31  men 
were  acquitted;  31  women  and  19  men  before  the  Tribunal; 
and  8  women  and  6  men  before  the  justices  of  the  peace.  In 
France,  25  women  and  50  men  were  acquitted  at  the  Assizes  ;^ 
and  in  Russia,  31  women  and  34  men.^ 

§222.  Age — Youth 

Prison  is  still  less  the  proper  expedient  for  the  youth  of 
either  sex.  I  have  shown  that  there  are  offenses  which  belong 
physiologically  to  childhood,  such  as  cruelty  to  animals,  theft 
of  food,  and  cheating.^  What  is  really  useful  in  these  cases  is 
what  we  may  call  moral  nurture,  putting  them  into  the  care 
of  respectable  and  kindly  families,  where  the  children  will  be 
well  treated,  and  where  they  will  be  submitted  to  the  proper 
sort  of  suggestion,  so  powerful  at  that  age.  Here  they  will  be 
stimulated  to  continued  activity  for  the  satisfaction  of  their 
proper  pride,  and  at  the  same  time  will  be  withdrawn  from 
dissipation  and  idleness.  Charitable  institutions,  agricultural 
colonies,  and  reform-schools  like  Barnardo's  and  that  at  Elmira, 
rendered  more  useful  by  the  application  of  new  ideas  drawn 
from  psychology  and  psychiatry  and  by  emigration  to  agri- 
cultural centers,  will  prevent  the  occasional  crimes  so  frequent 
at  that  age  and  will  succeed  in  certain  cases,  if  not  in  correcting, 
at  least  in  usefully  transforming,  the  born  criminal,  and  in  any 
case  will  prevent  him  from  contaminating  others.^ 

1  Bosco,  "La  Statistica  Civile  e  Penale,"  Rome,  1898. 

2  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 

'  I  have  read  in  the  "Bulletin  de  rUnion  des  Soci6t&  de  Patronage,"' 


§223J  PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  411 

For  this  purpose  it  is  necessary  to  avoid  the  detention  prison, 
which  is  the  greatest  source  of  corruption  for  youth. 

"We  speak,"  says  Joly,  "of  the  prisons  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
where  they  found  a  dead  man  between  two  sick  men  in  the 
same  bed.  What  we  still  do  in  our  prisons  is  destined,  I  believe, 
to  cause  quite  as  much  astonishment  by  and  Ijy.  We  put  a 
person  awaiting  judgment,  who  is  innocent  or  perhaps  only  an 
occasional  criminal,  in  contact  with  hardened  offenders.  .  .  . 
France,  with  such  promiscuities,  transforms  into  malefactors 
children  who  have  no  tendency  to  crime."  ^ 

And  all  this  has  not  even  the  advantage  of  making  a  selection, 
since,  as  Joly  very  well  observes,  the  children  acquitted  are 
worse  than  those  convicted. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  every  violent  correctional  measure 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  harmful  and  we  should  turn  to  milder 
measures.  Especially,  remembering  the  great  precocity  of 
criminals,  the  limit  of  age  at  which  we  begin  their  application 
ought  to  be  set  at  some  little  time  before  nine  years,  and  pro- 
longed in  the  case  of  infantilism  to  a  period  considerably  beyond 
that  set  by  law.  The  limits  should  vary,  also,  according  to 
climate,  race,  profession,  etc.  The  Semitic  and  southern  races 
are,  for  example,  much  more  precocious  in  crimes  of  blood  and 
in  sexual  crimes;  and  the  poor  and  those  who  live  in  the  coun- 
try are  slower  to  develop  than  the  city  dwellers  and  the  rich. 

§  223.  Old  Age 

The  old  man  unable  to  do  harm  ought,  like  the  child,  to  be 

spared  the  prison  sentence.     In  his  case  the  common  refuge, 

the  workhouse,  is  sufficient.     Here  such  inmates  should  be  kept 

in  separate  apartments,  with  special    precautions  to  prevent 

the  contagion  of  evil  and  also  escape.     Only  when  the  crime 

shows  an  unconquerable  perversity  should  the  old  man  be 

incarcerated  in  a  regular  prison. 

Oct.,  1897,  that  the  Tribunal  of  the  Seine  in  passing  judgment  upon 
minors  inquires  into  the  character  of  the  parents.  If  this  is  good  the 
child  is  returned  to  them  (25%);  or  he  is  sent  (73%)  to  the  temporary 
asylum  for  minors  founded  by  the  government  in  1893,  and  thus  all  but 
a  small  proportion  (2%  to  5%)  are  spared  a  penal  sentence.  A  circular 
of  the  Minister  of  Justice,  May  13th,  1898,  extends  this  measure  to  the 
whole  of  France.  ("Revue  P^nitentiare,"  1898,  p.  871.) 
1  "Le  Combat  contre  le  Crime." 


412  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§225 


§  224.  Criminals  by  Passion 

For  true  criminals  by  passion  remorse  for  crime  is  already 
the  greatest  of  punishments.  A  fine,  a  judicial  reprimand,  or 
removal  from  the  city  or  from  the  persons  injured  will  be  suflfi- 
cient  to  protect  society,  to  which  they  present  no  danger;  and 
this  treatment  will  leave  them  able  to  be  useful,  because  of 
the  great  altruism  which  is  characteristic  of  their  class. 

§  225.  Political  Criminals 

Much  the  same  may  be  said  of  political  criminals.  If  there 
is  a  crime  which  should  be  spared  not  only  capital  punishment, 
but  even  any  severe  punishment  at  all,  it  is  that  of  the  political 
criminal.  This  is  especially  true  because  many  political  crim- 
inals, if  they  are  not  criminals  by  passion,  are  insane  and  need 
the  hospital  more  than  the  scafiFold;  and  because  even  when 
they  are  criminals  their  altruism  renders  them  worthy  of  the 
greatest  consideration,  and  often  by  having  their  altruism  given 
another  direction  they  may  be  made  useful  to  society.  Louise 
Micnel  was  called  in  New  Caledonia  "the  red  angel,"  so  de- 
voted was  she  to  the  sick  and  unfortunate.^  Moreover,  almost 
all  political  criminals  are  young,  and  it  is  in  youth  that  heroism 
and  fanaticism  attain  their  highest  degree.  It  is  not  possible 
to  kill  an  idea  by  killing  the  man  who  has  conceived  it;  on 
the  contrary  it  grows  and  perpetuates  itself  better  in  the  glow 
of  the  martyr's  halo,  all  the  more  if  it  is  true,  while  if  it  is  false, 
it  falls  of  itself.  Furthermore,  it  is  not  possible  to  pass  final 
judgment  upon  a  man  while  he  is  alive,  any  more  than  a  single 
generation  can  decide  with  certainty  as  to  the  falsity  of  an  idea 
that  has  arisen  under  their  own  eyes.  Russia  has  for  a  long 
time  given  us  proofs  of  the  uselessness  of  too  severe  laws  against 
political  criminals.  Each  of  her  terrible  acts  of  repression  by 
condemnation  to  a  lingering  death  in  the  mines  of  Siberia  has 
been  followed  by  new  and  more  violent  reactions;  and  the  same 
is  true  of  France  and  Italy.     Ravachol  was  not  yet  dead  when 

*  Lombroso  and  Laschi,  "Le  Crime  Politique,"  Paris,  1890. 


§225]  PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  413 

he  was  turned  into  a  demi-god,  and  hymns  were  sung  in  Paris 
in  his  honor  instead  of  the  Marseillaise.^ 

"There  is  nothing,"  writes  one  of  our  profoundest  thinkers, 
G.  Ferrero,2  "more  potent  in  exciting  revolutionary  tendencies 
than  those  legendary  martyrologies  that  stir  the  imagination 
of  the  numbers  of  fanatics  with  whom  our  society  is  swarming, 
and  who  are  always  an  important  element  in  all  revolutionary 
movements.  In  every  society  there  is  a  crowd  of  persons  who 
need  a  martyr.  They  enjoy  being  persecuted  and  beheving 
themselves  the  victims  of  human  wickedness.  They  enroll 
themselves  in  the  political  parties  which  offer  the  most  danger, 
just  as  certain  mountain-climbers  choose  the  mountain  that 
has  the  most  dangerous  precipices  and  the  most  inaccessible 
peaks.  For  all  such  there  is  no  more  powerful  incentive  to 
embrace  revolutionary  theories  than  violent  persecutions;  and 
nothing  is  more  dangerous  than  to  give  these  exalted  imagina- 
tions the  corpse  of  an  executed  leader." 

That  which  characterizes  these  political  criminals  especially 
is  a  lack,  which  we  might  call  specific,  of  adaptability  to  the 
form  of  government  under  which  they  are  living;  while  bom 
criminals  show  themselves  unadaptable  not  only  to  the  social 
environment  of  the  nation  in  \#iich  they  are  found,  but  also 
to  that  of  any  nation  of  the  same  degree  of  civilization.  For 
this  reason,  while  born  criminals  must  be  eliminated  from  the 
civilized  world,  political  criminals,  who  are  such  by  passion, 
need  simply  be  removed  from  the  governmental  and  social 
environment  of  the  people  to  whom  they  have  proved  unable 
to  adapt  themselves. 

Exile,  as  it  existed  in  Roman  law  and  as  it  now  exists  in 
Abyssinia,  and  —  in  serious  cases  —  deportation,  are,  then,  the 
penalties  most  appropriate  for  this  class  of  criminals.  But 
these  penalties  ought  always  to  be  temporary  and  revocable 
every  three  or  five  years  at  the  will  of  parliament;  ^  for  before 
the  expiration  of  the  sentence  public  opinion  may  very  well 
have  changed.  It  is  just  for  this  reason  that  our  school,  while 
opposed  to  jury  trial  for  ordinary  crimes,  accepts  it  in  the  case 
of  political  crimes  as  the  only  means  of  diagnosis  which  permits 

1  Lombroso,  "Les  Anarchistes,"  Paris,  1896. 

'  "La  Riforma  Sociale,"  1894. 

»  Lombroso,  "Crime  Politique,"  Pt.  IV. 


414  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§226 

the  recognition  of  whether  the  public  opinion  regards  the 
offense  in  question  as  a  crime.  It  was  thus  that  formerly 
heresy  was  punished  as  the  gravest  possible  crime,  while  to 
punish  it  to-day  would  seem  ridiculous.  It  will  be  the  same  in 
a  short  time  with  crimes  of  leze  majesty,  strikes,  and  the  pre- 
tended offenses  of  socialistic  thought.  By  this  means  we  shall 
prevent  those  rare  cases  of  rebellion  which  are,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  begiiming  of  evolution;  and  this  idea  is  neither  revolution- 
ary nor  new,  for  it  has  already  been  applied  in  different  countries 
and  epochs,  and  under  really  free  governments;  in  Florence 
under  the  form  of  admonition,  in  Greece  under  that  of  ostra- 
cism, and  in  Sicily  as  petalism.  In  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  it  is  Congress  itself  which  fixes  the  penalty  for 
poHtical  crimes;  and  the  same  situation  prevailed  in  the  Roman 
RepubUc. 

But  if  the  punishment  for  crimes  provoked  by  political  pas- 
sion alone  ought  always  to  be  temporary,  in  mixed  political 
crimes,  on  the  contrary,  the  penalty  might  be  applied  in  a 
mixed  form;  that  is  to  say,  fixed  for  a  certain  term  of  years, 
corresponding  to  the  legitimate  social  reaction,  and  indeter- 
minate for  another  series  of  years,  in  order  that  it  may  be 
possible  to  interrupt  it  when  the  attack  upon  the  political 
organization  is  no  longer  considered  in  the  country  as  a  crime. 

§  226.   Occasional  Criminals 

The  same  crime  calls  for  a  different  penalty  according  as  it 
is  committed  by  a  born  criminal,  a  criminaloid,  or  an  occasional 
criminal,  and  even  at  times  in  this  latter  case  for  no  punish- 
ment at  all.  In  this  case  it  is  essential  to  recognize  the  true 
motive.  An  offense  that  is  really  occasional,  and  which 
excludes  the  thought  of  punishment,  is  the  theft  of  food  by 
persons  who  are  famished.^  Real  punishment  is  equally  inappro- 
priate in  all  cases  of  involuntary  offenses,  according  to  the  opin- 
ion of  Puglia,  Pinsero,  and  Capobianco,^  the  amount  of  the 
damages  to  be  paid  being  left  to  the  ci\Tl  judges;  for  it  would  be 
unjust  to  regard  a  man  as  absolutely  unfit  to  Hve  in  society,. 

»  Cremani,  "De  Jure  Criminali,"  1748. 
»  "Scuola  Positiva,"  III  and  VII. 


§227]         PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  415 

simply  for  the  reason  that  through  neghgence  or  thoughtless- 
ness, or  by  a  pure  accident  which  could  not  be  repeated,  he  has 
committed  a  harmful  act.  If  the  same  thing  occurs  repeatedly, 
it  is  possible  to  add  to  the  simple  damages  a  fine,  or  suspension 
from  the  office,  art,  or  profession  which  have  been  the  cause 
of  the  blamable  act. 

§  227.  Aid  to  Suicide 

Among  the  pretended  crimes  which  the  law  punishes  but  which 
the  public  conscience  absolves,  are  those  which  Garofalo  calls 
"not  natural"  but  juridical,  and  which  we  shall  call  conven- 
tional.   Aid  to  suicide  is  an  example. 

"If,  leaving  aside  pure  abstractions,  we  interrogate  the 
science  of  life,  we  shall  see,"  write  Calucci  and  Ferri,  "that 
the  interest  of  society  in  the  existence  of  each  of  its  members 
is  not  absolute,  but  that  it  decreases  greatly,  and  even  ceases 
altogether,  in  the  case  of  voluntary  death.  On  its  side  biology 
shows  us  that  in  the  struggle  for  existence  it  is  the  weakest, 
those  least  adapted  to  the  social  life,  who  succumb.  Suicide 
is  one  of  the  forms  of  this  defeat.  It  is,  according  to  Hackel, 
a  safety  valve  for  future  generations,  to  whom  it  spares  a  fatal 
heritage  of  nervous  diseases  with  their  consequent  misery.  It 
is,  says  Bagehot,  one  of  the  instruments  for  the  amelioration 
of  the  human  race  by  the  road  of  selection."  ^ 

Such  is  also  the  opinion  of  Morselli  and  of  myself.  I  have 
shown  with  Ferri  that  suicide  is  opposed  to  homicide,*  that  it 
is  a  real  safety  valve,  so  that  where  the  one  increases  the  other 
decreases.  On  this  side,  then,  suicide  is  of  real  advantage  to 
the  security  of  the  state. 

"Either,"  continues  Ferri,  "you  maintain  that  a  man  has 
not  a  right  to  dispose  of  his  own  life,  and  then  you  ought  to 
punish  the  suicide,  or  else  you  recognize  that  suicide  is  not  a 
crime.  In  that  case  how  can  you  punish  the  man  who  takes 
part  in  the  suicide  by  aiding  in  it,  just  for  taking  part  in  what 
is  no  crime?  For,  even  if  we  cannot  deny  that  the  state  exercises 
its  repressive  function  for  the  purpose  of  defending  its  citizens 
as  individuals  in  the  case  of  crime  against  their  safety,  who 
does  not  see  that  real  and  voluntary  consent  of  the  victim  re- 
moves every  excuse  for  interference  on  the  part  of  the  state?" 

1  Ferri,  "L' Omicidio-Suicidio,"  1884. 
«  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 


416  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§229 

Wherein  do  we  feel  our  safety  threatened  when  we  learn  that 
an  individual  has  been  killed  at  his  own  request?  The  Church 
alone  can  pretend  to  save  the  sinner  in  spite  of  himself. 

§  228.  Defamation 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  penalties  decreed  by  the  Italian 
code  against  defamation  having  a  political  or  social  object,  the 
work  most  often  of  men  better  than  the  normal  who  have  the 
courage  to  reveal  to  the  public  facts  that  pass  for  defamation 
only  because  the  persons  accused  are  powerful.  These  noble 
defamers  are  not  to  be  feared,  and  they  do  no  damage.  They 
disobey  the  law  only  because  it  is  imperfect.  They  are,  then, 
pseudo-criminals,^  more  worthy  of  praise  than  punishment.  It 
is  enough  to  make  them  show  their  good  faith  by  furnishing 
proof  of  the  facts  or  by  retracting  if  they  are  deceived,  expecially 
since  to  lay  bare  our  wounds  is  to  begin  their  cure. 

§  229.  The  Duel 

The  situation  is  much  the  same  with  regard  to  the  duel. 
Are  we  still  subject  to  the  tyranny  of  the  custom  which  drove 
us  to  the  duel  in  grave  and  exceptional  cases  when  the  services 
of  the  law  became  unavailing?  If  it  is  so,  then  we  have  before 
us,  in  persons  guilty  of  duelling,  harmless  individuals,  and  we 
should  be  using  an  excessive  and  unjust  zeal  if  we  were  to  pun- 
ish them  in  order  to  escape  a  danger  which  in  reality  does  not 
exist.  On  the  other  hand,  is  it  the  office  of  the  criminal  law  to 
correct  morals?  Assuredly  not,  for  morals  and  laws  follow  the 
natural  trend  of  things  and  are  both  determined  by  environ- 
ment. It  is  enough  to  recall  that  duels  raged  most  in  the  coun- 
tries where  they  were  punished  most  severely,  and  that  from 
the  Middle  Ages  to  our  own  time  the  number  has  decreased  in 
measure  as  the  laws  against  them  became  milder.  But  who  ever 
believed  that  prejudices  could  be  overcome  by  penalties?  Have 
not  the  prejudices  already  gathered  enough  victims  without 
having  these  useless  punishments  coming  in  and  demanding 
new  ones?    The  penal  code  ought  to  aim  at  defending  society 

1  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II. 


§230]         PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  417 

by  purifying  it  from  the  evil  race  of  criminals.  Now  the  duel- 
ist, at  least  in  most  cases,  is  rather  a  victim  than  a  criminal, 
and  if,  on  account  of  the  means  which  science  offers  us,  we  are 
able  to  identify  him  as  a  criminal  in  those  rare  cases  in  which 
he  is  such,  why  should  we  offer  him  this  honorable  means  of 
escape.?  If  he  is  not  a  criminal,  why  should  we  punish  him  for 
being  the  victim  of  the  very  prejudices  which  we  wish  to  eradi- 
cate? But  the  prejudice  will  either  die,  or  it  will  be  stronger 
than  the  law;  and  the  penalties  which,  on  account  of  their 
severity,  will  not  be  applied,  will  render  the  impotent  efforts 
of  the  lawmaker  all  the  more  ridiculous. 


§  230.  Adultery 

In  the  matter  of  adultery,  again,  the  situation  is  much  the 
same.  That  it  should  be  punished  as  a  crime  in  the  canon  law 
is  doubtless  justified,  but  in  the  modern  code  it  can  be  classed 
at  most  only  as  a  contravention.  Adultery  is  assuredly  im- 
moral, and  it  is  certain  that  if  a  law  could  prevent  it  by  punish- 
ment it  would  be  welcome;  but  that  it  could  do  so  is  not  the 
opinion  of  the  majority.  Moreover,  in  this  kind  of  trial  the 
victim  suffers  more  than  the  culprit.  It  is  useless,  then,  to 
have  recourse  to  the  law;  and  besides,  the  general  and  habitual 
impunity  renders  condemnation,  in  the  rare  cases  where  it  takes 
place,  all  the  more  cruel.  As  Berenini  rightly  says  in  his  mag- 
nificent monograph,  "Offesa  e  Difesa,"  "The  law  cannot  oblige 
a  woman  to  love  her  husband  or  the  husband  his  wife.  It  can 
only  safeguard  rights  that  may  be  exacted  materially  and  by 
force.  Love  is  not  a  right  that  either  one  of  a  married  couple 
can  require  of  the  other,  and  the  law  cannot,  in  consequence, 
protect  a  right  which  does  not  exist  for  the  person  who  claims 
to  have  been  injured.  Adultery,  by  dissolving  the  natural  mar- 
riage, involves  a  moral  divorce;  why  should  it  not  also  dissolve 
the  civil  marriage  by  a  legal  divorce?  Why  maintain  forcibly 
the  cause  of  the  disturbance  while  aggravating  its  effects  by  the 
useless  scandal  of  a  trial  and  a  condemnation?" 


418  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§233 

§  231.   Criminaloids 

For  criminaloids  who  are  not  recidivists  and  are  without  ac- 
compUces,  it  will  be  sufficient  for  the  first  time  to  suspend  sen- 
tence, take  security,  and  require  the  repayment  of  the  damage, 
by  work,  where  the  culprit  is  not  able  to  pay.  This  work  should 
be  in  the  fields  when  the  offender  is  a  peasant,  or,  in  case  of 
refusal  to  work,  in  a  cellular  prison. 

§  232.  Homo-sexxial  Offenders 

Homo-sexual  ofiFenders  whose  crime  has  been  occasioned  by 
residence  in  barracks,  or  colleges,  or  by  a  forced  cehbacy,  plainly 
will  not  relapse  when  the  cause  has  been  removed.  It  will  be 
sufficient  in  their  case  to  inflict  a  conditional  punishment,  for 
they  are  not  to  be  confused  with  the  homo-sexual  offenders  who 
are  born  such,  and  who  manifest  their  evil  propensities  from 
childhood  without  being  determined  by  special  causes.  These 
should  be  confined  from  their  youth,  for  they  are  a  source  of 
contagion  and  cause  a  great  number  of  occasional  criminals. 

§  233.   Other  Minor  Offenses 

Many  other  punishable  acts  could  be  transferred  from  the 
penal  to  the  civil  code  for  fines  and  payment  of  damages.  In 
this  class  come  the  violation  of  private  correspondence,  damages 
caused  to  the  property  of  another,  and  bad  treatment  of  other 
members  of  the  family  when  not  habitual  or  proceeding  from 
depraved  and  truly  criminal  instincts.  To  this  treatment  we 
may  add,  in  the  case  of  husband  and  wife,  separation  and  di- 
vorce. These  disciplinary  measures  would  be  sufficient  in  the 
case  of  a  violation  of  the  duties  proper  to  a  public  employee, 
and  could  be  carried  to  the  extent  of  dismissing  him  from  his 
position.  Simple  threats,  violation  of  domicile  without  crim- 
inal intent,  insult,  arbitrary  taking  of  satisfaction,  abuse  of 
pasturage  rights,  and  trespass  would  be  sufficiently  punished 
by  payment  of  damages,  which  could  very  well  be  estimated  by 
a  civil  judge.^  I  would  add  to  the  list  thefts  of  food  of  small 
value,  provided  that  the  small  value  of  the  articles  stolen  showed 

^  See  Garofalo,  "Riparazione  alia  Vittima  del  Delitto." 


§235]  PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  419 

the  occasional  character  of  the  offense.  Is  it  not  a  flagrant 
injustice  that  petty  thieves,  most  often  quite  inoffensive  (chil- 
dren who  have  stolen  fruit,  for  example),  should  be  punished  as 
severely  as  real  criminals  who  steal  upon  a  large  scale,  or  even 
more  severely,  since  the  latter  often  escape  punishment  alto- 
gether? I  shall  never  forget  how  upon  the  day  when  five  min- 
isters of  the  realm  of  Italy  rose  as  one  man  in  open  Parliament 
to  deny  or  to  justify  the  thefts  of  Tanlongo  and  Company, 
running  up  to  more  than  30  millions,  seven  children  were 
sent  to  weep  for  a  month  and  a  half  in  prison  cells  for  having 
stolen  a  herring  of  the  value  of  35  centesimi. 

In  these  last  cases  I  should  wish  to  make  a  distinction 
between  the  really  criminal  "gang"  having  a  common  under- 
standing and  a  minutely  detailed  plan,  and  that  accidental 
semi-comphcity  which  often  has  nothing  criminal  in  it,  being 
the  effect  of  a  simple  caprice.  The  former  I  would  punish  very 
severely,  while  for  the  latter  a  simple  reparation  to  the  person 
injured,  with  a  reprimand  or  a  conditional  sentence,  would 
suffice. 

§  234.   Complicity 

The  least  dangerous  criminals,  those  who  are  occasional 
criminals  or  criminals  of  passion,  having  for  their  psychologi- 
cal characteristic  always  to  act  alone  without  accomplices,  it 
follows  that  complicity,  at  least  in  thefts,  highway  robberies, 
and  murders,^  in  the  case  of  adults,  must  constitute  by  itself 
an  aggravating  circumstance;  and  in  every  case  should  not  be 
looked  into,  as  it  is  now,  merely  to  determine  what  share  in 
the  guilt  each  member  of  the  band  had,  but  should  be  taken  as 
a  distinctive  mark  of  criminals  belonging  to  the  most  dangerous 
classes.^ 

§  235.  Habitual  Criminals 

As  to  recidivists  and  criminaloids  who  have  become  habitual 
criminals,  they  should  be  treated  like  born  criminals  but  sub- 
jected to  a  less  severe  discipline,  their  crimes  bemg  almost 
always  less  serious  (theft,  swindling,  forgery,  etc.).    Further, 

1  Sighele   "La  Teoria  Positiva  della  Complicity,"  Turin,  1894. 

2  Fern,  "Sociologie  Criminelle,"  Pans,  1890. 


420  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§236 

while  in  the  case  of  the  born  criminal  the  first  crime,  if  serious, 
is  sufficient  to  have  him  sentenced  to  perpetual  confinement, 
in  the  case  of  the  habitual  criminal  it  is  necessary,  before  deter- 
mining upon  this  extreme  treatment,  to  have  the  evidence  of 
a  number  of  recidivisms  more  or  less  great  according  to  the 
kind  of  crimes  and  the  circumstances  under  which  they  were 
committed.  For  the  employment  of  these  criminals  there  should 
be  large  workshops  for  those  who  come  from  the  cities,  and  for 
those  who  come  from  the  country  agricultural  colonies  in  the 
districts  that  need  clearing,  graded  from  the  least  to  the  most 
healthful  according  to  the  diflFerent  categories  of  criminals. 
The  colony  of  Castiadas,  which  has  created  an  oasis  in  the  most 
insalubrious  district  of  Sardinia,  and  the  miracles  of  the  Trois 
Fontaines,  prove  how  easy  it  is  to  put  these  organizations  to 
practical  use,  diminishing  the  enormous  expenses  which  re- 
spectable people  have  to  pay  for  the  punishment  of  criminals 
and  at  the  same  time  making  them  of  real  service  to  the  society 
which  they  have  injured. 

§  236.  The  Criminal  Insane 

As  for  the  criminal  insane  and  the  numerous  bom  criminals 
in  whom  epilepsy  and  moral  insanity  manifest  themselves  clearly 
by  fits  of  mental  disturbance,  the  only  proper  treatment  is 
confinement  in  a  criminal  asylum.  By  means  of  such  an  insti- 
tution we  take  away  from  the  criminal  who  might  feign  in- 
sanity all  desire  to  do  so;  we  prevent  a  criminal  heredity  derived 
from  the  inmates;  we  put  an  end  to  their  forming  criminal  as- 
sociations (the  criminal  bands  having  almost  all  a  prison  origin) ; 
we  prevent  recidivism,  and  cut  down  the  enormous  expenses  of 
trials  and  the  imitative  crimes  which  often  result  from  trials. 
Wiedemeister  ^  objects  that  these  asylums  will  do  an  injury  to 
justice  in  case  the  patient  becomes  cured.  In  reply  we  will  re- 
mark in  the  first  place  that  these  cases  are  quite  rare.  The 
statistics  of  Broadmoor  record  but  5.5%.  However  this  may 
be,  the  inconvenience  may  be  remedied  by  granting  liberty  to 
those  patients  only  who  have  shown  themselves  to  be  cured 
during  a  long  period  of  observation. 

1  "Zeitschrift  fiir  Psychiatrie,"  1871. 


§236]  PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  421 

"But  as  soon  as  a  criminal  has  been  recognized  as  insane," 
objects  Falvet,  "he  is  not  to  be  considered  as  a  criminal,  but  re- 
sumes his  status  under  the  civil  law."  To  this  we  reply,  that 
he  cannot  return  to  that  status,  because  he  has  killed,  ravished, 
and  stolen,  and  cannot  therefore  be  put  on  the  same  plane  as 
the  harmless  insane;  for  as  long  as  the  danger  persists,  the  right 
of  defense  remains.  Aside  from  this,  this  method  of  reasoning 
is  derived  from  a  class  of  ideas  which  science  will  from  now  on 
eliminate;  that  is  to  say,  that  while  insanity  is  a  misfortune, 
crime  is  a  perversity  of  the  free  will.  Now,  just  as  men  came  to 
recognize  a  century  ago,  contrary  to  the  beliefs  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  that  insanity  did  not  depend  upon  free  will,  we  must  now 
recognize  that  neither  does  crime  itself  depend  upon  it.  Crime 
and  insanity  are  both  misfortunes;  let  us  treat  them,  then, 
without  rancor,  but  defend  ourselves  from  their  blows.^  On 
the  principles  of  the  positivistic  school,  the  objection  cannot  be 
maintained  that  the  insane  "so-called"  criminal  comes  under 
the  civil  law  simply.  He  comes  under  the  law  of  self-defense  as 
much  as  the  true  criminal. 

For  this  reason  the  objection  falls  that  the  insane  person 
cannot  be  detained  for  an  indeterminate  time,  and  that  when 
he  is  cured,  even  before  the  expiration  of  the  term  which  he 
would  have  passed  in  prison  in  case  of  a  conviction,  he  has  the 
right  to  go  free.  This  objection  cannot  be  admitted,  consider- 
ing the  great  number  of  relapses  which  have  been  shown  to 
occur  in  all  forms  of  insanity.  There  are  misfortunes  that  are 
inexorable,  and  grant  only  a  short  respite;  since  we  cannot  de- 
liver the  individual  from  them  completely,  let  us  try  at  least 
to  prevent  the  family  of  the  hapless  wretch,  and  society  in 
general,  from  being  victims,^ 

Furthermore,  all  the  more  civilized  nations  show  similar  in- 

»  Ferri,  "Sociologie  Criminelle."  ^^^,  ,        ,  ,,    i. 

2  Recently  Christiani  ("Archivio  di  Psichiatna,"  1896)  has  shown  that 
incurability  (82%)  and  death  (17%)  are  the  most  frequent  results;  while 
cures  are  more  rare  (5%  to  8%),  and  that  with  almost  all  there  is  to 
be  observed  a  predominance  of  anti-social  tendencies  (87%).  Nicholson 
found  that  75%  of  ordinary  criminals  are  such  from  cupidity,  15%  from 
hatred,  and  10%  from  immorality;  while  in  the  case  of  the  criminal  in^ne 
the  last  figure  becomes  71%.  (Journal  of  Mental  Science,  Oct.,  1895.) 
It  is  these  who  are,  then,  the  fiercest  and  most  dangerous. 


422  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§236 

stitutions.  We  have  seen  that  in  England  they  are  already 
ancient.  The  criminal  asylum  exists  also  in  Denmark;  and  it 
has  been  introduced  into  Sweden  and  Hungary.  In  France  at 
the  Prefecture  of  Police  there  is  a  permanent  medical  commis- 
sion, whose  duty  it  is  to  separate  immediately  from  the  other 
persons  arrested  those  who  appear  to  be  insane.  In  1870  a  real 
asylum  for  the  criminal  insane  was  erected  as  a  part  of  the  cen- 
tral institution  at  Gaillon.  This  department  is  kept  under  the 
discipline  of  the  prison  except  as  to  the  compulsory  labor,  and 
also  as  to  the  punishments,  which  can  be  inflicted  only  with  the 
permission  of  physicians.  Only  those  who  have  been  sentenced 
to  imprisonment  for  more  than  one  year  are  admitted  here, 
and  they  cannot  be  discharged  without  the  authorization  of 
the  minister.^  All  the  other  civilized  peoples  of  continental 
Europe,  if  they  have  not  regular  criminal  asylums,  have  laws 
and  institutions  which  partly  take  the  place  of  them.  At 
Hamburg,  Halle,  and  Bruchsal  the  penitentiaries  have  infir- 
maries which  are  reserved  exclusively  for  the  insane,  with  gar- 
dens, secure  cells,  and  a  special  discipline,  so  that  the  insane 
can  receive  continual  care  there  as  in  the  regular  asylums.  In 
Belgium  a  law  (1850)  decrees  that 

"  Persons  arrested,  proceedings  against  whom  have  been 
suspended  for  the  cause  of  insanity,  shall  be  consigned  to 
asylums  designated  by  the  Public  Minister.  These  asylums 
must  have  special  wards  for  maniacal  prisoners,  accused  or 
convicted,  who  cannot  be  mingled  with  the  other  patients 
without  a  special  authorization  from  the  minister  of  justice. 
The  physician  in  charge  is  responsible  for  the  escape  of  dan- 
gerous or  criminal  insane  persons,  and,  in  case  of  flight,  must 
take  all  the  necessary  steps  to  recover  them." 

A  new  law,  "la  loi  Lajeune  "  (1891),  requires  the  appointment 
of  three  alienists  as  special  inspectors  of  prisons,  to  discover, 
isolate,  and  care  for  the  insane.  In  Hungary  a  kind  of  medical 
senate,  composed  of  judges  and  physicians  who  are  alienists,  is 
charged  with  pronouncing  upon  doubtful  cases. 

We  may  say,  then,  in  summing  up,  that  in  these  asylums  there 

^  Hurel,  "Le  Quartier  des  Condamn^s  Ali^nes  Annexe  k  la  Maison 
Centrale  de  Gaillon,"  Paris,  1877. 


§  236]  PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  423 

should  be  received:  1st,  all  prisoners  who  have  become  insane, 
if  they  have  criminal  tendencies;  2d,  all  the  insane  who,  on 
account  of  homicidal  or  incendiary  tendencies,  pederasty,  etc., 
have  been  subjected  to  a  judicial  procedure  which  has  been 
suspended  upon  the  discovery  of  their  insanity;  3d,  all  those 
charged  with  strange  or  atrocious  crimes,  committed  without 
clear  motive,  in  whose  case  has  arisen  the  suspicion  of  insanity, 
or  at  least  of  a  serious  cerebral  affection,  as  attested  by  three 
expert  alienists;  ^  4th,  in  consideration  of  the  extraordinary  im- 
portance of  epilepsy,  all  those  who  have  committed  crimes  in 
a  state  of  psychic  epilepsy  and  criminals  who  have  had  epileptic 
fits;  5th,  all  those  who,  being  of  general  good  reputation,  are 
driven  to  crime  by  an  habitual  and  evident  infirmity,  such  as 
pellagra,  chronic  alcoholism,  and  puerperal  diseases,  especially 
where  they  have  insane  or  epileptic  parents,  or  show  numer- 
ous marks  of  degeneracy.  In  this  connection  we  see  the 
propriety  of  having  special  criminal  asylums  for  the  alcoholic, 
epileptic,  etc. 

The  insane  coming  from  the  prisons  must  be  isolated  from  the 
others  and  placed  in  separate  wards  in  the  infirmaries  annexed 
to  the  prisons.  The  discipline  should  be  severe  for  all,  and  the 
vigilance  greater  than  in  the  common  asylums,  more  like  that 
of  the  prisons,  but  the  work  should  be  proportioned  to  the 
strength  and  alternated  with  long  periods  of  rest  and  amuse- 
ment. The  direction  should  be  medical,  but  the  attendants 
should  have  prison  training. 

The  individuals  who  are  recognized  as  habitually  dangerous 
and  have  already  been  several  times  arraigned  ought  never  to 
be  liberated.  Those  who  are  affected  with  a  transitory  or  inter- 
mittent form  of  insanity  and  show  signs  of  a  perfect  cure  should 
be  selected  for  discharge  after  one  or  two  years  of  observation, 

*  At  first  sight  this  proposition  appears  absurd,  and  the  absurdity  haa 
been  made  use  of  to  refute  those  who  uphold  the  criminal  asylum.  But 
proper  attention  is  not  paid  to  the  fact  that  it  is  just  the  doubtful  cases, 
intermediate  between  reason  and  insanity,  in  which  crimes  without  cause 
are  most  frequent  and  in  which,  therefore,  the  criminal  asylums  are  most 
useful  and  of  most  service  in  guaranteeing  the  public  safety.  We  may 
recall  here  that  a  crime  without  reason  is  of  itself  a  sign  of  msanity.  Bec- 
caria  says  that  a  sane  man  is  not  capable  of  useless  cruelty  not  e.xcited  by 
hate,  fear,  or  self-interest.     (See  "Homme  Crimmel,"  Vol.  lU.) 


424  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§237 

and  subjected  after  their  release  to  monthly  medical  visits  for 
several  years,  as  is  done  in  Belgium. 


§  237.  Incorrigible  Criminals 

We  have  seen  that  the  best  penitentiarj'^  system  will  not  pre- 
vent recidivism,  and  that  the  individualized  system  has  given 
unfortunate  results  in  Denmark.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have 
seen  that  we  have  in  the  collective  prisons  the  most  frequent 
cause  of  repeated  recidivisms  and  criminal  actions,^  Further, 
what  can  one  hope  for  from  individuals,  like  those  described  by 
Breton  and  Aspirall,  returned  to  prison  50  or  60  times  in  a 
single  year?  Such  persons  evidently  find  themselves  better  off 
there  than  outside,  so  that  for  them  prison  is  no  longer  a  pun- 
ishment but  a  reward  and  an  encouragement  to  corruption? 
When  no  method  is  of  service  any  longer,  when  the  criminal  is 
insensible  to  all  the  pains  taken  with  him  and  relapses  10  or 
20  times,  society  ought  not  to  wait  while  he  perfects  himself 
in  crime  by  a  new  sojourn  in  prison,  but  should  keep  him  shut 
up  until  assured  of  his  reformation,  or,  better,  of  his  powerless- 
ness  to  do  harm.  We  should,  for  this  end,  establish  special 
penal  institutions,  to  which  a  jury  composed  of  directors,  phy- 
sicians, and  judges  shall  consign  all  the  individuals  who,  having 
from  infancy  shown  an  inclination  toward  crime,  have  relapsed 
several  times,  especially  if  they  present  those  physical  and  psy- 
chical characteristics  which  we  have  seen  to  be  marks  of  the 
born  criminal. 

Even  more  important  than  the  well-being  of  the  inmates  is 
the  matter  of  making  them  useful  that  they  may  not  occasion 
too  great  an  expense,  and  also  the  matter  of  preventing  the 
possibility  of  escape.  For  this  reason  islands  or  retired  valleys 
offer  the  best  locations.  Here  the  prisoners  may  be  occupied, 
if  they  come  from  the  country,  in  work  in  the  fields,  which  will 
be  useful  for  their  health  and  of  advantage  to  the  state,  while 
those  who  come  from  the  city  may  be  provided  for  in  workshops. 
Better  still,  disciplined  military  companies  might  be  formed,  as 
is  the  practice  in  Westphalia,  and  put  to  work  to  improve  the 

1  See  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 


§237]         PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX,  ETC.  425 

roads  and  drain  the  marshes.  They  should  be  permitted  daily 
to  spend  some  hours  according  to  their  own  taste,  but  they 
should  be  set  at  liberty  again  only  after  extraordinary  proof  of 
reformation.  The  cellular  system  should  be  inflicted  upon  them 
only  in  the  case  of  a  new  relapse.  In  this  way  the  prison  would 
become  purged  of  those  criminals  who  take  pride  in  vice  and 
render  all  attempts  at  reform  there  impossible.  In  this  way  we 
shall  apply  anew  to  society  the  process  of  selection  to  which  is 
due  the  existence  of  our  race,  and  also  probably  the  existence 
of  justice  itself,^  since  it  was  the  elimination  of  the  more  violent 
that  gradually  allowed  justice  to  prevail.  However  high  the 
expense  of  all  this  may  be,  it  will  always  be  less  than  the  cost 
of  new  crimes  and  new  trials.  Thompson  calculates  that  458 
Scotch  recidivists  cost  £132,000,  of  which  £86,000  was  for  the 
cost  of  the  trials  alone. 

This  proposition  is  not  new,  for  in  1864  the  House  of  Lords 
proposed  to  condemn  criminals  to  penal  servitude  after  a  second 
recidivism.  E.  Labiste  ^  proposes  that  after  the  expiration  of 
his  sentence,  every  individual  whose  total  sentences  exceed 
five  years  and  who  has  relapsed  for  the  tenth  time,  shall  be 
permanently  deported.  The  same  reform  is  proposed  by  Bonne- 
ville,' Tissot,*  and  Doria  Barini;  ^  and  it  has  already  been  put 
into  operation  in  Belgium  in  the  agricultural  colony  of  Mexplas, 
which  contains  4500  individuals.  The  buildings  of  this  insti- 
tution were  all  erected  by  the  labor  of  the  convicts  themselves 
under  the  superintendence  of  30  or  40  foremen.  Everything 
was  constructed  little  by  little  according  to  the  needs  and  re- 
sources, so  that  this  magnificent  establishment,  which  in  other 
countries  would  have  cost  millions,  has  cost  Belgium  only  the 
price  of  the  land.  Live  stock  multiplies  upon  the  place,  since 
the  farms  have  their  own  bulls  and  stallions.  The  workmen  are 
occupied  only  with  the  production  of  such  things  as  have  an  easy 
sale,  and  in  the  making  of  which  they  may  be  useful.  The 
inmates  are  divided  into  four  classes:  1st,  those  who  are  re- 

1  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I.,  Ft.  I-    ^      „        .      „  ,„,^ 

2  "Essai  sur  Ics  Institutions  Penales  des  Remains,     1875. 

3  "De  rinsufficiance  Actuelle  de  1' Intimidation,"  p.  257. 

<  "Introduction  Philosophique  k  I'Etude  du  Droit  P<5nal,'   p.  433. 
"      «  See  "Rivista  di  Disciplinia  Carceria,"  1876. 


426  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§238 

fractory  or  dangerous,  contact  with  whom  might  be  harmful  to 
the  other  inmates;  2d,  recidivist  convicts,  under  the  surveil- 
lance of  the  police,  those  who  have  formerly  escaped,  and  those 
who  have  had  a  bad  record  in  the  institution  itself;  3d,  men 
whose  antecedents  leave  something  to  be  desired,  but  who  have 
never  had  to  undergo  severe  punishment  in  the  institution; 
4th,  those  who  have  not  been  deported  to  the  colonies  more 
than  three  times  and  whose  conduct  might  be  considered  as 
good.  The  communes  sometimes  send  their  paupers  there,  pay- 
ing 65  centimes  for  those  that  are  well  and  85  for  the  sick. 
Those  who  refuse  to  work  are  kept  in  a  cell  three  days  upon 
bread  and  water.  The  inmates  are  paid  for  their  labor  in  a 
currency  which  passes  only  in  the  institution  but  is  exchanged 
for  real  money  when  they  are  discharged.  In  this  way  the  danger 
of  spending  money  in  the  neighboring  hamlets  is  avoided.^ 

§  238.   The  Death  Penalty 

But  when,  in  spite  of  the  prison,  transportation,  and  hard 
labor,  these  criminals  repeat  their  sanguinary  crimes  and 
threaten  the  lives  of  honest  men  for  the  third  or  fourth  time 
there  is  nothing  left  but  the  last  selection,  painful  but  sure,  — 
capital  punishment.  Just  as  the  death  penalty  is  too  largely 
inscribed  in  the  book  of  nature,  so  is  it  in  the  book  of  history; 
and  like  all  other  punishments,  it  has  a  relative  justice.  Capital 
punishment  assuredly  ought  to  be  found  in  the  penal  system  of 
barbarous  peoples,  among  whom  prison  does  not  inspire  suflS- 
cient  terror;  but  among  civilized  people  the  delicacy  of  feeling 
which  wishes  to  abolish  it  is  too  respectable  to  be  brushed  aside, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  the  singular  prestige  produced  by 
a  death  inflicted  in  cold  blood  by  judges,  and  at  times  met 
with  bravado,  often  multiplies  crimes  by  imitation  and  creates 
among  the  rabble  a  sort  of  worship  of  the  unfortunate  victim. 

But  the  opponents  of  this  form  of  punishment  do  not  think 
of  asking:  What  means  of  defense  is  left  to  society  against  a 
man  guilty  of  repeated  murders  who  keeps  his  guards  in  con- 
stant danger  of  violence  or  death?  Would  it  be  more  just  or 
more  humane  to  keep  him  bound  hand  and  foot  for  life.'^ 
^  Joly,  "Le  Combat  contra  le  Crime." 


§238]         PENALTIES  ADAPTED  TO  SEX.  ETC.  427 

Let  no  one  advance  the  objection,  with  Ferri,  that  in  order 
to  make  capital  punishment  effective  it  must  become  a  regular 
butchery,  a  thing  repugnant  to  modern  thought.  To  retain  the 
death  penalty  is  not  the  same  as  multiplying  it.  It  is  enough 
that  it  should  remain  suspended,  like  the  sword  of  Damocles, 
over  the  head  of  the  more  terrible  criminals,  when,  after  having 
been  condemned  to  imprisonment  for  life,  they  have  several  times 
made  attempts  upon  the  Uves  of  others.  Under  these  condi- 
tions there  is  no  longer  any  weight  to  the  otherwise  funda- 
mentally sound  objection  which  is  so  often  put  forward,  namely, 
that  this  penalty  is  irreparable.  I  should  also  wish  to  have  this 
punishment  retained  when  the  social  system  of  a  country  is 
menaced  by  associated  crime  under  the  forms  of  brigandage,  the 
Camorra,  etc.  From  this  point  of  view  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
civil  conditions  are  absolutely  equivalent  to  the  conditions  for 
which  this  penalty  is  reserved  in  time  of  war.  \^^lat !  shall  we 
be  unmoved  when  by  the  right  of  conscription  we  condemn  in 
advance  thousands  of  men  to  an  early  death  upon  the  battle- 
field, often  for  dynastic  caprice  or  demagogic  madness,  and  shall 
we  hesitate  when  it  is  a  question  of  suppressing  some  few  crim- . 
inal  individuals,  a  hundred  times  more  dangerous  and  fatal  than 
a  foreign  enemy,  in  whose  ranks  a  chance  bullet  may  strike  a 
Darwin  or  a  Gladstone? 

Assuredly  if  we  take  the  point  of  vnew  of  strict  abstract 
right,  we  do  not  believe  ourselves  to  be  God's  vicars  and  there- 
fore have  no  absolute  right  over  the  life  of  our  fellows.  But 
urdess  this  right  comes  to  us  with  the  necessity  of  self-defense, 
neither  have  we  any  right  to  deprive  men  of  liberty  or  to  hold 
them  accountable  for  the  least  misdemeanor.  To  claim  that 
the  death  penalty  is  contrary  to  the  laws  of  nature  is  to  ignore 
the  fact  that  this  law  is  written  in  the  book  of  nature  in  let- 
ters only  too  clear,  and  that  the  very  progress  of  the  organic 
world  is  entirely  based  upon  the  struggle  for  existence,  followed 
by  savage  hecatombs.  The  fact  that  there  exist  such  beings 
as  born  criminals,  organically  fitted  for  evil,  atavistic  repro- 
ductions, not  simply  of  savage  men  but  even  of  the  fiercest 
animals,  far  from  making  us  more  compassionate  towards  them, 
as  has  been  maintained,  steels  us  against  aU  pity.    Our  love  for 


428  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§238 

animals  (except  among  the  fakirs  of  India)  has  not  reached 
such  a  point  that  we  are  willing  to  sacrifice  our  own  lives  for 
their  benefit. 

Here  I  can  but  recall  the  vigorous  lines  which  Taine  wrote 
to  me  shortly  before  he  died: 

"When  in  the  life  and  in  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  emotional 
organization  of  the  criminal  the  criminal  impulse  is  isolated, 
accidental,  and  transitory,  we  can  and  even  ought  to  pardon; 
but  the"  more  this  impulse  is  bound  up  with  the  entire  fabric  of 
the  ideas  and  feeUngs,  the  more  guilty  is  the  man  and  the  more 
ought  he  to  be  punished.  You  have  shown  us  fierce  and  lubri- 
cious  orang-utans  with  human  faces.  It  is  evident  that  as  such 
they  cannot  act  otherwise.  If  they  ravish,  steal,  and  kill,  it  is 
by  virtue  of  their  own  nature  and  their  past,  but  there  is  all 
the  more  reason  for  destroying  them  when  it  has  been  proved 
that  they  will  always  remain  orang-utans.  As  far  as  they  are 
concerned  I  have  no  objection  to  the  death  penalty,  if  society 
is  likely  to  profit  by  it." 

Many  of  the  measures  which  I  have  advocated  may  appear 
contrary  to  certain  ideal  principles  which,  while  more  noble 
than  practical,  are  regarded  by  short-sighted  intolerance  as 
unassailable  axioms.  Further,  they  may  be  regarded,  by  those 
who  are  frightened  at  the  first  cost,  as  diflficult  to  put  into  prac- 
tice; but  this  is  to  lose  sight  of  the  economies  which  they  would 
make  possible  in  the  future,  especially  if  we  should  suppress, 
at  least  for  recidivists,  the  costly  and  useless  judicial  proceed- 
ings based  solely  upon  errors  in  form.^  In  any  case  they  can- 
not be  accused  of  endangering  that  public  safety  which  is  the 
ultimate  aim  of  all  penal  systems. 

'  In  France,  where,  aa  De  Foresta  observes,  the  person  has  no  right  of 
appeal  for  merely  technical  errors,  and  each  new  trial  or  decision  may 
bring  an  increase  of  the  penalty,  appeals  are  very  rare  and  taken  only  for 
grave  reasons.  Out  of  the  money  thus  saved  it  would  be  possible  to 
support  three  criminal  asylums  and  a  large  institution  for  incorrigibles. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PRACTICAL    PROOFS    OF  THE    UTILITY    OF    THESE    REFORMS  — 
ENGLAND  —  SWITZERLAND 

§239- 

THE  utility  of  these  reforms  is  proved  by  the  recent  statistics 
of  London  and  Geneva,  where  there  has  been  a  perceptible 
decrease  in  criminality,  while,  on  the  contrary,  crime  is  increas- 
ing in  countries  like  Italy  and  Spain,  where  such  reforms  have 
not  been  applied. 

In  the  period  between  1829  and  1838  there  were  recorded  at 
Geneva,  for  each  100,000  inhabitants,  79  criminals  convicted 
by  the  Criminal  Court  and  1000  by  the  correctional  tribunal, 
while  between  1872  and  1885  there  were  recorded  12  of  the 
former  and  300  of  the  latter;  that  is  to  say,  between  the  two 
periods  the  serious  crimes  decreased  by  five-sixths  and  the 
minor  offenses  by  two-thirds.  This  is  certainly  a  great  honor 
to  the  city,  and  the  facts  are  even  stronger,  for  the  crimes  com- 
mitted by  the  Genevese  themselves  have  decreased  nearly  nine- 
tenths  in  the  last  80  years.^ 

What  are  the  causes  that  make  Geneva  an  oasis  of  morality 
in  the  midst  of  Europe?  Guenoud  attributes  it  in  the  first  place 
to  the  fact  that  foreigners  who  have  been  for  some  time  resi- 
dents in  Geneva  have  taken  up  the  customs  and  morals  of  the 
natives;  and  the  observation  of  Joly  ^  is  to  the  same  effect, 
namely,  that  the  immigrants  at  first  contribute  largely  to  the 
criminality,  but  as  they  become  established  in  their  new  country 
they  gain  in  morality  and  honesty.  But  Ladame  urges  by  way 
of  objection,^ 

"The  assimilation  of  foreigners  to  the  natives  does  not  pre- 
vent immigration;  the  same  causes  consequently  continue  to 

1  Guenoud,  "La  Criminality  h  Geneve  au  XIX  SiScle,"  Geneva,  1891. 

2  "La  France  Criminelle." 

3  "Journal  de  Geneve,"  Feb.  4th,  1891. 


430  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§239 

be  active,  and  if,  on  one  side,  the  population  of  Geneva  annu- 
ally assimilates  a  certain  number  of  foreigners,  the  resultant 
moral  influence  is  neutralized  by  new  immigrants  whose  influ- 
ence is  the  other  way." 

Nor  can  we  look  for  the  cause  in  education,  since  we  have 
seen  that  this  very  often  increases  at  least  the  minor  forms 
of  criminality. 

The  sole  reason  remaining  is,  then,  that  Geneva  (see  Pt.  II, 
Ch.  VI)  is  certainly  that  place  in  central  Europe  where  there 
have  been  established  the  greatest  number  of  institutions  for 
mutual  aid,  which  without  degrading  the  recipients  remedy  the 
greatest  evils  of  poverty,  and  also  preventive  institutions  for 
children,  for  degraded  women,  against  alcoholism,  etc. 

The  proof  of  this  conclusion  appears  more  clearly  still  in 
England,  especially  in  London.  If  we  compare  the  criminality 
there  in  the  years  1892-93  with  those  of  the  ten  years  preced- 
ing, we  find  an  increase  of  28%  in  the  offenses  against  persons 
and  18.9%  in  those  against  property,  caused  by  a  desire  for 
vengeance  and  taking  the  form  of  arson  or  the  destroying  of 
crops.  But  in  other  crimes  (theft,  receiving  stolen  goods, 
forgery,  offenses  against  the  public  order,  etc.)  the  decrease  was 
respectively  8.8%,  36.3%,  34%,  and  22.2%,  with  a  total  ab- 
solute decrease  of  8%.^  Now  it  must  be  noted  that  in  these  ten 
years  the  population  increased  12%;  so  that  even  if  there  had 
been  as  much  as  an  absolute  increase  of  12%  in  the  criminality 
it  would  mean  that  relatively  to  the  population  crime  was 
not  on  the  increase  in  England. 

"The  decrease  there  in  the  criminality  of  minors,  which  in 
Italy  continues  to  increase,  is  still  more  remarkable.  In  1868-69 
there  was  recorded  the  conviction  of  10,000  children  less  than 
16  years  of  age;  in  the  succeeding  years  the  figures  fell  to  9700, 
and  finally  to  4000.  Thus  we  find  that,  taking  account  of  the 
increase  in  population,  England  recorded  in  1868-69-70  46 
juvenile  criminals  to  the  100,000  inhabitants;  in  1893  there 
were  only  14,  a  real  decrease  of  70%;  while  it  appeared  that 
in  France  in  1889  the  number  of  juvenile  offenders  had  in- 
creased 140%  in  50  years.  The  criminal  classes  of  England 
are  composed  of  individuals  at  liberty,  Icnown  to  be  thieves 

1  Joly,  "La  Revue  de  Paris,"  Paris,  1891. 


§  239]  PROOFS  OF  UTILITY  OF  REFORMS  431 

or  receivers  of  stolen  goods,  and  of  persons  under  suspicion. 
Here  also  there  is  an  improvement.  In  1867  this  last  category- 
comprised,  taking  prisoners  and  those  at  liberty  together, 
87,000  individuals.  This  figure  fell  later  to  50,000;  in  1881  to 
38,960;  and  finally  in  1891-92  to  29,826.  The  suspected  houses 
fell  from  2688  to  2360."  ^ 

We  do  not  have  here  those  accidental  variations  in  figures 
common  in  statistics,  for  they  show  such  a  decided  difference 
that  no  doubt  can  remain,^  and  they  extend  even  to  unpunished 
crime. 

This  great  decrease  in  criminality  is  actually  due  to  prevent- 
ive measures,  especially  those  which  have  to  do  with  children, 
and  to  the  moral  and  religious  fight  against  alcoholism.  We 
find  an  incontestable  proof  of  this  in  the  great  diminution  of 
crime  in  London  as  compared  with  the  smaller  cities  and  with 
the  country.  This  is  exactly  the  opposite  of  what  is  observed 
elsewhere,  since  the  general  rule  is  the  greater  criminality  of 
the  principal  cities.  Now,  while  the  city  of  London,  which  has 
the  largest  population  of  any  city  in  the  civilized  world,  records 
15  suspected  persons  to  100,000  inhabitants,  the  country  shows 
61  and  the  other  cities  50.  Further,  while  London  has  3.4  sus- 
pected houses  to  each  100,000  inhabitants,  the  country  has  3.9 
and  the  other  cities  8.4. 

We  have  another  proof  of  the  influence  of  preventive  measures 
in  the  diminution  of  alcoholism  which  has  taken  place  in  just 
those  districts  of  England  and  Switzerland  where  the  religious 
and  purely  ethical  societies  vie  with  the  state  in  striking  at 

1  Joly,  "La  Revue  de  Paris,"  1894. 

2  However,  one  remark  must  be  made  here:  in  the  statistics  for  juvenile 
offenders  in  England  we  see  — 

Juvenile  Offenders  (under  16) 

1864-68  1889-98 

Sent  to  prison 8,285  2,268 

"    to  reform  schools      1,228  1,163 

"    to  industrial  schools     ....  966  8,737 

Sentenced  to  be  whipped 685  3,028 

11,064  13,806 

We  see  that  if  the  juveniles  sent  to  prison  or  to  the  reform  schools  have 
decreased  enormously  (over  6000)  the  number  sent  to  the  mdustnal  schools 
or  sentenced  to  whipping  has  increased  by  9300. 


432  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§240 

the  evil  at  its  very  source.  While  in  France  the  sales  of  alcoholic 
drinks  increased  from  365,995  in  1869  to  417,518  in  1893, 
and  from  1.82  litres  to  each  inhabitant  in  1830  to  4.20  in  1893, 
in  England,  on  the  contrary,  the  consumption  per  capita  has 
fallen  in  recent  years  from  7  liters  to  5,  and  in  Switzerland 
from  11  liters  to  7.^ 

§  240.  Bom  Criminals 

It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  imagine  that  the  measures 
which  have  been  shown  to  be  effective  with  other  criminals  could 
be  successfully  applied  to  born  criminals;  for  these  are,  for  the 
most  part,  refractory  to  all  treatment,  even  to  the  most  affec- 
tionate care  begun  at  the  very  cradle,  as  Barnardo  finally 
became  convinced.  Such  was  Jac ,  whom  he  placed  in  con- 
ditions best  fitted  to  reform  him,  but  who  escaped  repeatedly 
to  live  a  life  of  vagabondage.  While  the  less  advanced  peoples 
are  lingering  over  the  Utopias  of  the  old  jurists  and,  believing 
that  reform  is  possible  for  all  criminals,  are  taking  no  measures 
against  the  continually  rising  tide  of  crime,  the  English,  more 
provident,  have  recognized  that  although  they  have  been  able 
by  their  efforts  to  eliminate  the  accidental  criminal  almost 
entirely,  the  born  criminal  still  persists.  They  are  the  only 
nation  to  admit  the  existence  of  criminals  who  resist  all  cure, 
the  "professional  criminals,"  as  they  caU  them,  and  the  "crim- 
inal classes." 

It  will  not  be  useless,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  limit  the 
causes  of  crime  to  education  and  environment,  to  verify  this 
with  figures.  While  crime  in  England  has  decreased  by  8%, 
recidivism  among  male  criminals  has  remained  stationary  or 
nearly  so.  The  English  statistics,  in  fact,  show  41.7%  of  re- 
cidivism in  1892-93  and  45%  in  1894-95.2  j^  ^he  case  of  the 
women  recidivism  has  increased  from  54.6%  to  60.4%,  and  this 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  preventive  institutions  for 
women  in  London  are  much  more  numerous  than  those  for 
men;  but  all  efforts  break  down  against  the  corruption  encour- 
aged by  prostitution  and  against  the  increasing  alcoholism  of 

*  "Revue  du  Christianieme  Pratique,"  Nov.,  1894. 
8  Paolucci,  "Revue  des  Revues,"  May,  1896. 


§  240]  PROOFS  OF  UTILITY  OF  REFORMS  433 

women.  "No  one  ever  knew  of  a  man,"  says  Paolucei,  "who 
has  reached  500  convictions  for  drunkenness,  Hke  Tessie  Jay,  or 
even  250,  hke  Jane  Cakebreade."  We  have  seen,  in  this  con- 
nection, how  the  introduction  of  agricultural  colonies  has  les- 
sened theft  and  vagabondage  in  Westphalia. 

We  must  say,  however,  that  this  system  can  be  of  use  only 
for  occasional  criminals,  or  for  vagrants  who  are  such  from  lack 
of  work,  while  it  is  of  no  value  for  born  vagabonds.  We  have 
a  proof  of  this  in  an  experiment  which  was  tried  in  Paris.  Ac- 
cording to  the  "ficonomiste  Frangais"  (1893),  a  certain  person 
arranged  to  obtain  positions  in  stores,  factories,  etc.,  at  4  francs 
a  day,  for  all  persons  presenting  a  letter  from  himself.  In  8 
months  he  offered  this  letter  to  727  beggars  who  complained 
that  they  were  starving  because  of  lack  of  work.  More  than 
half  (415)  of  these  did  not  even  call  for  the  letter;  130  got  the 
letter  but  did  not  present  it  to  any  employer.  Others  worked  for 
half  a  day,  drew  their  two  francs,  and  did  not  return.  In  short, 
out  of  the  whole  727,  only  8  continued  at  work.  Taking  simply 
those  who  took  the  letter,  we  see  that  out  of  every  40  beggars 
able  to  work,  only  1  had  a  sincere  desire  to  do  so.^  Even  if  the 
young  people  whom  Barnardo  sent  to  Canada  were  reformed,  out 
of  those  who  emigrated  to  the  same  country  from  the  reform 
school  at  Redhill  42%  returned  worse  than  before,  notwith- 
standing the  £1000  spent  for  their  reformation  (Joly). 

1  See  also  Paulien,  "Paris  qui  Mendie,"  1890. 


CHAPTER  V 

PRACTICAL  APPLICATION    TO    THE    CRITICISM    OF    CRIMINAL    LAW, 
TO  EXPERT  TESTIMONY,   PEDAGOGY,   ART,   AND  SCIENCE 

§241. 

ALL  these  facts  prove  abundantly  that  crimmal  anthropology 
not  only  solves  the  theoretical  problems  of  law,  but 
suggests  useful  lessons  in  the  struggle  of  society  against  crime; 
while  ancient  penal  science,  the  more  it  rose  into  the  exalted 
regions  of  jurisprudence,  the  more  it  lost  touch  with  practice 
and  the  less  it  knew  how  to  protect  us. 

§  242.  Political  Crime 

One  of  the  newest  and  at  the  same  time  most  practical  appli- 
cations of  criminal  anthropology  is  that  which  takes  into  account 
the  fact  that  men's  hatred  of  the  new  is  the  juridical  basis  of 
political  crime.  From  the  study  of  the  physiognomy  and  biology 
of  the  political  criminal  it  establishes  the  difference  between  a 
real  revolution,  a  useful  and  productive  thing,  and  mere  revolts, 
which  are  always  sterile  and  harmful.^  It  is  a  fact  now  defi- 
nitely recognized,  and  one  of  which  I  have  given  proofs  in  my 
"Crime  Pohtique,"  that  those  who  start  great  scientific  and 
political  revolutions  are  almost  always  young,  endowed  with 
genius  or  with  a  singular  altruism,  and  have  a  fine  physiognomy; 
and  far  from  presenting  the  insensibility  common  in  born 
criminals,  they  are,  on  the  contrary,  marked  by  a  real  moral 
and  physical  hyperesthesia.  But  if  from  the  martyrs  of  a 
great  social  and  religious  idea  we  pass  to  rebels,  regicides,  and 
"presidenticides,"  such  as  Fieschi  and  Guiteau,  to  the  pro- 
moters of  the  massacres  of  1793,  such  as  Carrier,  Jourdan,  and 
Marat,  and  to  the  anarchists,  we  see  that  all,  or  nearly  all,  are 
of  a  criminal  type.     These  are  rebels. 

»  See  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  II,  p.  255. 


§  243]  PRACTICAL  APPLICATION 


435 


§  243.  AppUcation  to  Psychiatric  Expert  Testimony 
Medical  experts  and  practical  penologists  who  have  studied 
criminal  anthropology  have  become  convinced  of  the  value  of 
this  science  in  recognizing  the  real  culprit  and  in  deciding  how 
far  an  accomplice    has    participated    in    a    crime.     Hitherto 
these  things  have  had  to  be  determined  from  unreliable  indica- 
tions, such  as  prison  confessions  and  vague  official  information 
1  will  cite  as  proof  of  this  the  following  examples:   1   Bersone 
Pierre,  37  years  of  age,  weU  known  as  a  thief,  had  been  arrested 
under  charge  of  having  stolen  20,000  francs  upon  the  raUroad 
In  pnson  he  feigned  madness,  pretending  that  someone  had 
poisoned  him.     It  was  soon  plain  that  he  had  committed  many 
other  thefts,  since  he  was  found  in  possession  of  a  number  of 
documents   and  passports,   among  others  that  of  a  certain 
Torelli.     The  result  of  an  anthropological  examination  was  as 
follows:     mean  cranial  capacity,  1589  c.  c;  cephalic  index,  77; 
type    of    physiognomy,    completely    criminal;     touch,    nearly 
normal  —  tongue,   L9  mm.   (between  points  perceived    sepa- 
rately), right  hand,  2-3,  left  hand,  1-2  (with  sensorial  mancin- 
ism) ;  general  sensibility  and  sensibility  to  pain,  very  obtuse  — 
48  mm.  and  10  mm.  respectively,  on  the  adjustable  Rhum- 
korff  coil,  as  against  61  mm.  and  24  mm.  for  the  normal  man. 
An  investigation  with  the  hydrosphygmograph  ^  confirmed  me 
in  my  observation  of  his  great  insensibility  to  pain,  which  did 
not  change  the  sphygmographic  hues.    The  same  apathy  per- 
sisted when  he  was  spoken  to  of  the  robbery  on  the  railroad, 
while  there  was  an  enormous  depression  —  a  fall  of  14  mm.  — 
when  the  Torelli  theft  was  mentioned.     I  concluded,  therefore, 
that  he  had  had  no  part  in  the  railway  robbery,  but  that  he 
had  certainly  participated  in  the  Torelli  affair;  and  my  conclu- 
sions were  completely  verified. 

2.    Maria  Gall of  Lucera,  66  years  of  age,   was  found 

dead  in  her  bed,  her  face  to  the  mattress,  and  her  nostrils  bloody, 
bruised,  and  lacerated  inside.    Suspicion  at  once  directed  itself 

^  An  instrument  by  which  tracings  of  the  pulse  and  of  alterations  in 
the  volume  of  the  members  under  the  influence  of  emotion  may  be  ob- 
tained, and  which  expresses  in  millimeters  the  psychic  reaction. 


436  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§243 

against  her  two  step-sons,  M and  F ,  men  of  bad  reputa- 
tion, who  had  been  seen  roaming  in  the  neighborhood  during  the 
day  and  alone  had  an  interest  in  the  death  of  the  victim,  since 
she  was  about  to  purchase  a  Hfe-annuity  which  would  have 
disinherited  them.  At  the  autopsy  there  were  shown  to  be 
all  the  internal  marks  of  advanced  putrefaction  and  of  asphyxi- 
ation; and  in  the  oesophagus  was  found  an  intestinal  worm 
resting  upon  the  opening  of  the  glottis.  Two  experts  pro- 
nounced it  to  be  a  case  of  asphyxia,  produced  by  violent  suffo- 
cation through  the  victim's  being  held  with  her  face  against 
the  bolster,  the  worm  having  been  drawn  there  only  through  a 
fit  of  coughing.  Another  expert  admitted  the  asphyxia,  but 
was  not  wUling  to  deny  the  possibility  of  its  having  been  caused 
by  the  worm.  Called  in,  in  my  turn,  as  a  consulting  expert, 
I  was  able  at  least  to  observe  that  death  from  asphyxia  pro- 
duced by  intestinal  worms  are  found  only  in  infants  and  insane 
persons,  and  that  then  marked  phenomena  of  reaction  appear, 
which  in  this  case  were  completely  wanting;   further,  that  the 

witness  C declared  he  had  heard  stifled  cries  and  the  sound 

of  blows  on  the  night  of  the  crime  in  the  direction  of  the  chamber 

of  the  victim;  and  especially  that  M ,  the  accused  person, 

was  juridically  and  anthropologically  suspected  of  the  crime, 
of  which  he  had  been  openly  accused  by  his  brother,  who,  much 

less  criminal  than  he,  was  less  obstinate  in  his  denials.     M 

was,  in  fact,  the  most  perfect  type  of  the  born  criminal:  enor- 
mous jaws,  frontal  sinuses,  and  zygomata,  thin  upper  lip,  huge 
incisors,  unusually  large  head  (1620  c.  c),  tactile  obtuseness 
(4  mm.  right,  2  mm.  left)  with  sensorial  mancinism.  He  was 
convicted. 

3.   A  rich  farmer,  S ,  returning  from  market  with  2000 

francs  about  him,  was  asked  by  an  unknown  man  seeking  work 
to  take  him  into  the  carriage  with  him.  From  then  on  this 
person  did  not  leave  him.  They  supped  together  and  were 
seen  towards  evening  going  along  the  high  road,  where  the 
following  night  the  unfortunate  farmer  was  found  assassinated, 
bearing  the  marks  of  strangulation,  his  head  shattered  with 
great  stones,  and  his  purse  empty.  Four  witnesses  called  the 
judges'  attention  to  the  sinister  physiognomy  of  the  unknown 


§  244]  PRACTICAL  APPLICATION  437 

man,  and  a  young  girl  declared  that  she  had  seen  in  the  even- 
ing, sleeping  near  the  murdered  man,  a  certain  Fazio,  who  was 
observed  the  next  day  hiding  himself  when  the  gendarmes 
approached  the  neighborhood.  Upon  examination  I  found 
that  this  man  had  outstanding  ears,  great  maxillaries  and 
cheek-bones,  lemurine  appendix,  division  of  the  frontal  bone, 
premature  wrinkles,  sinister  look,  nose  twisted  to  the  right  — 
in  short,  a  physiognomy  approaching  the  criminal  type;  pupils 
very  slightly  mobile,  reflexes  of  the  tendons  quicker  on  the 
right  side  than  on  the  left,  great  tactile  obtuseness,  more  in 
the  right  hand  (5  mm.)  than  in  the  left  (4  mm.);  motor  and 
sensorial  mancinism;  a  large  picture  of  a  woman  tattooed  upon 
his  breast,  with  the  words,  "Remembrance  of  Celina  Laura" 
(his  wife),  and  on  his  arm  the  picture  of  a  girl.  He  had  an 
epileptic  aunt  and  an  insane  cousin,  and  investigation  showed 
that  he  was  a  gambler  and  idler.  In  every  way,  then,  biology 
furnished  in  this  case  indications  which,  joined  with  the  other 
evidence,  would  have  been  enough  to  convict  him  in  a  country 
less  tender  toward  criminals.  Notwithstanding  this  he  was 
acquitted. 

§  244.  Proof  of  Innocence 

Criminal  anthropology  can  not  only  help  us  to  discover  the 
real  culprits,  but  may  also  save,  or  at  least  rehabilitate,  inno- 
cent persons  accused  or  convicted. 

Such  a  case  occurred  where  a  Uttle  girl,  three  and  a  half 
years  old,  was  violated  and  infected  by  an  unknown  man,  and 
her  mother  accused  successively  six  young  men  who  lived  on 
the  same  staircase  and  were  familiar  with  the  child.  They 
were  arrested,  but  all  denied  the  crime.  I  picked  out  immedi- 
ately one  among  them  who  had  obscene  tattooing  upon  his  arm, 
a  sinister  physiognomy,  irregularities  of  the  field  of  vision,  and 
also  traces  of  a  recent  attack  of  syphilis.  Later  this  individual 
confessed  his  crime. 

A  case  observed  in  my  clinic  and  published  by  Rossi  in  "Una 
Centuria  di  Criminali"  revealed  the  innocence  of  a  convict. 
A  certain  Rossotto  Giacinto,  as  a  consequence  of  a  series  of 
false  declarations  and  a  letter  received  from  his  brother-in-law 


438  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§245 

begging  him  to  give  false  testimony,  was  condemned  to  impris- 
onment for  life  for  highway  robbery.  Examining  this  man 
before  my  students,  I  found  to  my  great  surprise  that  this 
was  the  most  normal  individual  I  had  ever  investigated.  He 
was  50  years  old;  his  height  was  1.73  meters;  he  weighed  74.5 
kilograms;  his  hair  and  beard  were  abundant;  mean  cranial 
capacity,  1575  c.  c;  cephalic  index,  84;  and  he  was  without 
facial  anomaly.  His  sense  of  touch  was  very  fine,  1.1  mm.  for 
the  right  hand,  1.0  for  the  left,  and  .5  for  the  tongue;  his 
general  sensibility  was  normal  (50),  and  sensibility  to  pain  30. 
He  was  ignorant  of  thieves'  slang  and  was  not  cynical.  He 
showed  the  condition  of  mind  common  to  the  average  man; 
he  was  fond  of  work,  which  had  been  his  only  consolation  dur- 
ing the  long  years  of  his  captivity.  His  conduct  had  always 
been  exemplary;  even  in  prison  he  had  shown  no  vexation 
except  at  his  unjust  condemnation  and  at  his  separation  from 
his  family.  Married  at  19  years,  he  had  never  had  intercourse 
with  any  other  woman  than  his  wife;  and  his  family  included 
neither  insane  persons  nor  criminals.  While  I  was  examining 
him,  not  yet  knowing  anything  of  his  antecedents,  I  said  to 
my  students,  "If  this  man  had  not  been  sentenced  for  life,  he 
would  represent  to  me  the  true  type  of  the  average  honest  man." 
It  was  then  that  the  unfortunate  man  quietly  answered,  "But 
I  am  an  honest  man  and  I  can  prove  it."  He  put  into  my 
possession  numerous  documents  proving  his  perfect  honesty, 
such  as  death-bed  declarations  of  the  real  authors  of  the  crime 
with  which  he  had  been  charged,  who  swore  before  the  justice 
of  the  peace  that  he  had  no  part  in  the  crime,  attestations  of 
prison  directors,  etc.  His  neighbors,  of  whom  I  made  inquiries 
with  regard  to  him,  declared  that  he  was  a  perfectly  honest  man. 

§  245.  Pedagogy 

To  our  school  is  owing  still  another  application,  direct  and 
no  less  useful,  namely,  the  application  to  pedagogy.  Anthro- 
pological examination,  by  pointing  out  the  criminal  type,  the 
precocious  development  of  the  body,  the  lack  of  symmetry, 
the  smallness  of  the  head,  and  the    exaggerated  size  of    the 


§  246]  PRACTICAL  APPLICATION  439 

face  explains  the  scholastic  and  disciplinary  shortcomings  of 
children  thus  marked  and  permits  them  to  be  separated  in 
time  from  their  better-endowed  companions  and  directed 
toward  careers  more  suited  to  their  temperament;  and  some- 
times it  may  even  point  the  way  to  a  cure,  through  emigration, 
moral  education,  and  medical  treatment. 


§246.  Art — Letters 

In  literature  itself  we  can  see  a  last  application  of  this  new 
science,  not  only  in  the  interpretation  of  masterpieces  in  which 
genius  has  already  anticipated  some  of  the  results  of  criminal 
anthropology,  as  Shakespeare  in  "Macbeth"  and  "Lear," 
and  Wiertz  in  the  "  Enthaupteten "  ;  but  also  in  suggesting 
new  forms  of  art,  as  in  the  admirable  works  of  Dostojewsky, 
"Totenhaus"  and  "Schuld  und  SUhne,"  in  Zola's  "Bete  Hu- 
maine,"  Garbarg's  ^  "  Kolbrottenbro  og  Andre  Skildringer," 
Ibsen's  "Hedda  Gabler,"  and  d'Annunzio's  "Innocente." 

And  why  should  we  not  count  among  our  triumphs  the  new 
applications  that  have  been  made  to  the  most  distant  branches 
of  science?  Thus  Max  Nordau  has  found  in  our  science  a 
basis  for  the  criticism  of  artistic,  philosophical,  and  literary 
creations;  2  in  the  same  way  Ferri  and  Le  Fort  have  made  an 
application  of  it  to  the  criticism  of  the  great  masters  of  paint- 
ing and  the  drama;  and  now  Sighele,  Ferrero,  and  Bianchi 
have  applied  it  to  modern  history  and  poUtics. 

When  a  collective  crime  rises  suddenly  as  a  strange,  inex- 
plicable phenomenon  in  modern  society,  the  researches  into 
the  special  crime  of  mobs  explain  it  for  us  admirably.  At  the 
same  time  they  teach  us  to  defend  ourselves  against  such 
crimes  by  the  preventive  measures  counseled  by  philanthropy. 
Otherwise  a  cruel  reaction  would  certainly  follow  with  univer- 
sal approval,  and  the  wound  would  be  poisoned  instead  of 
healed.' 

1  See  Ferri,  "Les  Criminels  dans  I'Art,"  1897;  Lombroso  ",Le  piu 
Recenti  Scoperte,"  1893;  Le  Fort,  "Le  Type  Cnminel  dans  1  Art,    1891. 

2  "Degeneracy,"  Vols.  I  and  H.  „t     o      u  r        j 

3  Sighele,  "La  Foule  Criminelle,"  1889;   Ferrero,  "Le  Symboliame  du 

Droit,"  1889. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    UTILIZATION    OF    CRIME  —  SYMBIOSIS 
§247. 

HAVING  arrived  at  the  end  of  my  long  labor,  like  the 
traveler  who  finally  touches  the  shore,  I  cast  a  glance 
over  the  space  that  I  have  traversed;  and  among  numerous 
omissions,  of  which  there  is  no  lack  in  the  most  carefully  exe- 
cuted work,  I  perceive  that  I  have  too  much  neglected  that 
side  of  crime  which  concerns  its  utility,  proved,  at  least  in- 
directly, by  its  long  continuance. 

If  we  try  to  apply  the  Darwinian  law  (according  to  which 
only  those  organisms  survive  which  have  utility  for  the  species) 
to  the  fact  that  crime  does  not  cease  to  increase,  at  least  under 
the  forms  of  swindling,  peculation,  and  bankruptcy,  we  are 
driven  to  believe  that  it  must  have,  if  not  a  function,  at  least 
a  social  utility. 

It  is  known,  in  fact,  that  in  ancient  times,  and  still  to-day 
among  the  less  civilized  peoples,  the  greatest  crimes  were,  and 
still  are,  utilized  as  a  political  weapon.  We  even  possess  a 
code,  that  of  MachiaveUi,  which  is  only  a  long  series  of  criminal 
projects  with  a  political  end,  in  which  Borgia  was  the  model. 
Do  we  not  see,  from  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Ten  in  Venice, 
who  hired  assassins  for  political  purposes,  to  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  crime  reigning  as  sovereign  in  the  most 
remote  as  well  as  in  the  most  recent  epochs?  No  one  has  for- 
gotten the  parliamentary  corruption  of  Pitt  and  Guizot,  or  the 
treasons  of  Fouche  and  Talleyrand.  More  recently  the  Pana- 
mists  and  the  Crispists  have  shown  us  that  political  morality 
differs  widely  from  private  morality,  and  that  ministers  may 
be  criminals  even  though  highly  esteemed;  while  the  anarchists, 
in  their  turn,  have  declared  that  they  regard  crime  as  a  weapon 


§  247]  THE  UTILIZATION  OF  CRIME     ^  441 

of  war.     The  man  of  integrity,  moreover,  whose  love  of  justice 
and  truth  prevents  his  teUing  a  lie  necessary  to  surmount  an 
obstacle,  to  lure  distrustful  persons,  or  to  flatter  princes  with 
whom  flattery  is  the  highest  virtue,  will  always  find  msur- 
mountable  difficulties  barring  his  way.     We  see  then  that  vice 
becomes   almost   necessary   for  parliamentary  government  of 
uncivilized  and  civilized  peoples  ahke.     Buckle  has  shown  in 
his  immortal  work  how  much  more  dangerous  it  is  to  have 
statesmen  ignorant  than  to  have  them  criminal;  for  if  they  are 
ignorant  they  leave  the  nation  exposed  to  all  the  rascals  there 
are,  while  if  they  are  rascals  themselves  they  alone  commit 
crime.     It  was  the  worst  minister  that  Italy  has  had  who 
declared,  "We  shall  be  incapable,  but  honest";  yet  history  has 
shown  that  not  even  he  was  honest.     In  our  time  the  Ke  is  no 
less  necessary  to  specialists,  physicians,  and  lawyers;  it  is  even 
the  basis  of  their  operations.     The  pious  lie  which  comforts 
the  last  moments  of  the  consumptive,  is  often  used  not  simply 
for  the  hysterical  and  chlorotic,  but  even  for  those  who  are  per- 
fectly well;  just  as  the  defense  of  the  orphan  and  the  "w-idow  is 
easily  used  also  on  behalf  of  their  persecutors.     Further,  is 
there  any  greater  crime  than  war,  which  is  only  an  accumula- 
tion of  theft,  arson,  rape,  and  murder,  provoked  by  causes 
similar  to  those  of  common  crimes,  such  as  personal  ambition 
and  cupidity,  and  excused  only  because  they  are  committed  on 
a  large  scale  .'^     However,  we  must  recognize  that  if  war  is  an 
evil  in  civilized  countries,  it  is  in  semi-barbarous  countries  the 
starting    point    for    immense    progress.     Beginning    with    the 
primitive  tribe,  men  are  welded  by  war  into  small  groups,  then 
into   larger   groups,    and   finally   into   nations.     Furthermore, 
military  conquest  has  obliged  savage  men,  who  are  naturally 
idle,  to  endure  privations  and  to  overcome  the  natural  disin- 
chnation  to  work;   it  has  initiated  the  system  of  gradual  sub- 
ordination   under   which  all  social   Ufe  has  been  established 
(Spencer).     War,  on  the  other  hand,  has  often  contributed  to 
popular  liberty.     It  is  doubtless  for  this  reason  that  the  indig- 
nation against  war  is  not  sufficiently  general  to  prevent  men 
from  provoking  it.     Prostitution,  which  we  have  seen  to  be 
the  equivalent  of  crime,  can,  in  its  turn,  prevent  a  number  of 


442  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§247 

sexual  crimes,  as  is  proved  by  the  relatively  greater  number 
of  rapes  in  country  districts.  We  know  that  the  creation  of 
houses  of  prostitution  brought  Solon  eternal  gratitude,  when 
it  was  recognized  how  useful  they  were  for  checking  the  in- 
creasing number  of  rapes  at  Athens.  Usury  itself  was  not 
without  utility :  it  was  from  this  that  the  bourgeoisie  arose,  with 
the  first  accumulations  of  capital  capable  of  giving  birth  to 
the  most  potent  enterprises  of  humanity.  Novikow  has  shown 
us  that  the  expulsion  of  the  Jewish  merchants  and  usurers 
from  Russia  impoverished  the  very  peasants  on  whose  behalf 
it  was  carried  out;  for  it  had  as  its  result  the  lowering  of  the 
price  of  flax,  for  want  of  able  speculators  to  sell  the  product. 
We  know,  also,  that  the  oflScials  of  the  communes  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  after  having  expelled  the  Jews,  soon  had  to  recall  them, 
because  their  expulsion  had  paralyzed  all  the  industries.^ 

I  have  shown  ^  that  many  of  the  penalties  against  crimes  in 
barbarous  times  were  themselves  only  new  crimes,  such  as 
codified  vengeance,  cannibalism,  etc.  The  tabu  was  a  series  of 
prohibitions,  often  absurd,  introduced  by  the  priests  nearly 
always  for  their  own  self-interest;  but  there  are  found  among 
these  some  which  are  useful,  such  as  those  which  protected  the 
crops  and  the  fisheries  from  exhaustion  by  a  premature  gather- 
ing. Compensation  for  homicide,  which  barbarous  chiefs  im- 
posed upon  their  subjects  and  bishops  and  popes  continued 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  was  nothing  else  than  simony  and 
peculation  under  different  forms.  But  it  was  a  check  upon 
homicide,  and  fixed  the  principle  of  a  less  barbarous  codifica- 
tion having  a  principle  of  gradation. 

I  beheve,  then,  that  the  modern  tolerance  toward  so  many 
criminals  is  due  to  the  tendency  to  a  love  of  the  new  which 
they  very  often  bring  into  the  industries  and  even  into  poli- 
tics, —  a  tendency  totally  opposed  to  the  temper  of  the  aver- 
age man.  In  the  writings  of  criminals,^  among  innumerable 
things  that  are  shameful  I  have  at  times  observed  traces  of  a 

1  Lombroso,  "L'Antisemitismo,"  1894;  Id.,  "Le  Crime  Politique,'* 
1892. 

2  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I. 

»  Lombroso,  "Palimpsestes  de  la  Prison,"  Lyons,  1894. 


§  247]  THE  UTILIZATION  OF  CRIME  443 

genius  which  is  not  met  with  in  the  average  man.  In  criminals 
as  in  men  of  genius,  with  whom  they  have  in  common  an  epi- 
leptoid  basis,  degeneracy  is  not  productive  of  evil  alone.  Just 
as  in  the  man  of  genius  the  excess  of  intelligence  is  compensated 
for  by  a  lack  of  moral  sense  and  practical  energy,^  so  in  the 
criminal  the  lack  of  feeUng  is  often  compensated  for  by  energy 
of  action  and  the  love  of  the  new,  the  organic  anomaly  destroy- 
ing the  exaggerated  conservatism  habitual  to  the  normal  man. 
Their  abnormality,  their  love  of  the  new,  impel  them  to  enroll 
themselves  in  the  extreme  parties.  Caesar  and  Catiline  at 
first  found  partisans  only  among  rascals,  while  the  ancient 
consular  party  drew  only  respectable  persons.''  History  teaches 
us  that  the  nucleus  of  almost  all  great  rebellions  is  criminal. 
Moreover,  criminals  play  such  a  part  in  parhamentary  life 
that  it  would  be  impossible  to  eliminate  them  from  it  without 
.  great  harm;  just  as  it  would  not  have  been  possible  to  expel 
the  ancient  tyrants,  who  were  criminals,  but  useful  criminals. 
Even  forgers  and  swindlers,  though  they  work  entirely  for 
their  own  advantage,  set  in  motion  so  many  different  activities 
that  they  give  a  powerful  impulse  to  progress.  Their  lack  of 
scruples,  their  \dolent  impulsiveness,  and  their  blindness  to 
obstacles  cause  them  to  succeed  where  honest  men  would 
inevitably  fail. 

This  fondness  for  innovations  which  they  carry  out  by 
crime  is  at  times  the  starting  point  for  immense  enterprises. 
The  construction  of  the  Suez  Canal,  for  example,  is  due  to  a 
colossal  swindle,  accomphshed  by  the  same  artifices  which  were 
employed  in  connection  with  Panama.  Similarly  the  English 
na\^  had  its  origin  in  the  piracy  of  Drake  and  his  contempo- 
raries. The  colonization  of  Venezuela  by  the  Italians  is  due 
to  an  officer  expelled  from  our  army  for  cheating.  Mimande  ' 
mentions  two  swindlers,  an  incendiary,  and  two  thieves  who 
introduced  into  New  Caledonia  the  cultivation  of  tapioca  and 
potatoes  on  a  large  scale,  and  also  the  tanning  of  leather;  while 
another  thief,  formerly  a  distiller,  discovered  the  means  of 

1  Lombroso,  "The  Man  of  Genius,"  Pt.  IV. 

«  Lombroso  and  Laschi,  "Le  Crime  Politique,"  1890. 

»  "Criminopolis,"  1897. 


444  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§247 

extracting  perfumes  and  liquors  from  the  indigenous  plants. 
Among  semi-barbarous  nations,  where  crime  is  rather  a  common 
activity  than  a  misdeed,  the  criminals  often  become  popular 
justices  and,  as  it  were,  political  tribunes.  They  exercise  and 
put  in  practice,  for  their  own  benefit,  it  is  true,  but  also  for 
the  benefit  of  others,  a  kind  of  violent  communism,  which 
permits  them  to  enrich  themselves  while  despoiling  the  rich 
and  powerful;  but  they  apply  at  the  same  time  a  summary 
justice  which  supphes  the  lack  of  oflScial  justice.  In  Sardinia, 
in  Corsica,  and  for  a  long  time  in  Sicily  under  the  Bourbons, 
the  real  judges,  the  true  protectors  of  the  oppressed,  were,  and 
still  actually  are,  the  brigands,  who  often  divide  their  booty 
with  the  poor,  becoming  their  leaders  in  revolts.  In  Naples, 
and  in  Sicily  in  part,  the  Camorra  and  the  Mafia,  although 
they  are  criminal  associations,  for  a  long  time  administered  a 
relative  justice  upon  the  people,  expecially  in  the  haunts  of 
vice,  in  the  inns,  and  in  the  prisons.  They  were  able  to  offer 
property  owners  and  travelers  a  kind  of  security  against  male- 
factors which  it  was  far  from  being  in  the  power  of  the  govern- 
ment to  guarantee.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  they  were 
tolerated,  and  even  aided,  by  honest  men.  Thus  it  was 
that  under  Louis  XIV  during  nearly  a  century,  the  poorer 
people  of  France  owed  to  brigands  and  smugglers,  associated 
and  organized  almost  into  an  army,  the  fact  that  they  were 
able  to  have  salt,  which  was  then  so  heavily  taxed  that  it  had 
become  an  article  of  real  luxury. 

In  the  midst  of  too  corrupt  a  civilization,  when  the  extreme 
of  legalism  has  come  to  encourage  crime  by  impunity,  lynch- 
ing, which  is  itself  a  crime,  becomes  a  barbarous  but  efficacious 
means  of  self-defense.  In  California,  for  example,  all  the 
public  offices,  including  the  judgeships,  were  in  the  hands  of 
a  band  of  real  malefactors,  who  stole  with  impunity  and  were 
acquitted  when  accused.  The  majority  of  the  people,  becom- 
ing disgusted,  rose  up  and  lynched  them.  Since  then  Cali- 
fornia has  been  the  quietest  state  in  the  Union.  Without  this 
means  justice  wotdd  never  have  succeeded  in  extirpating  the 
criminals,  any  more  than  now  in  Italy  it  succeeds  in  reaching 
great  rascals  if  they  are  under  the  shelter  of  their  high  offices. 


§  247]  THE  UTILIZATION  OF  CRIME  445 

All  this  explains  why,  among  barbarous  peoples  as  among 
the  most  civilized,  many  crimes  are  not  only  not  punished  but 
are  even  encouraged,  and  why  the  reaction  against  certam 
crimes  is  so  weak  and  insufficient. 

Besides,  the  objections,  re\'isions,  appeals,  and  counter- 
appeals  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  impartiality  of  the 
verdict  are  so  numerous  that,  when  sentence  is  finally  pro- 
nounced, men  have  forgotten  the  crime,  or  they  are  so  wearied 
by  waiting  that  the  most  unjust  verdict  awakens  no  opposition. 
And  if  sometimes  the  judgment  is  unjust  and  severe,  pardons 
and  amnesties  remedy  the  matter,  so  that  a  criminal  must  be 
very  poor  and  very  stupid  if  he  is  to  undergo  the  whole  of  the 
punishment  that  he  deserves.  Criminal  trials  too  frequently 
serve  only  to  allow  lawyers  to  transfer  to  their  own  pockets 
the  money  which  criminals  have  stolen  from  honest  men;  such 
trials  are  after  all  only  a  pretext  for  us  to  lull  ourselves  into  a 
feeling  of  security  which  new  crimes  daily  prove  false. 

We  may  add  that  if  the  ancient  criminal  trials,  juridical 
cannibalism,  the  pubhc  copulation  of  persons  guilty  of  adultery, 
and  the  combats  with  wild  beasts  were  wretched  and  criminal 
amusements,  modem  trials,  in  their  turn,  are  no  less  immoral, 
thanks  to  the  theatrical  character  of  the  assizes  and  of  the 
infliction  of  the  death  penalty.  At  these  the  worst  criminals 
congregate,  finding  them  their  best  amusements,  as  well  as 
a  means  of  learning  more  exil  and  increasing  the  number  of 
their  misdeeds.  It  results  that  the  penalty  itself  and  the 
means  of  executing  it  are  another  form  of  crime,  of  which  the 
whole  cost  is  borne  by  honest  men.  Thus  Italy,  having  lost 
20  millions  by  the  evU  devices  of  criminals,  loses  four  times 
as  much  in  ha\-ing  them  arrested  and  tried,  and  sLx  times  as 
much  for  their  support  in  prison.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  a  good  share  of  honest  men's  earnings  are  paid  out  for 
the  benefit  of  criminals,  for  whom  an  ill-conceived  pity 
always  finds  extenuating  circumstances,  and  the  more  so  the 
worse  they  are. 

All  this  would  not  have  persisted  through  so  many  centu- 
ries, if  the  fundamental  usefulness  of  certam  crimes  among 
barbarous  or  semi-barbarous  peoples  had  not  been  great  enough 


446  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES         [§248 

to  prevent  a  really  decided  reaction  from  arising  in  the  hearts 
of  honest  men. 


§  248.   Symbiosis 

But,  this  temporary  function  of  crime  being  admitted,  does 
it  follow  that  the  supreme  end  to  which  this  book  is  directed, 
the  contest  against  crime,  is  useless,  and  perhaps  even  harm- 
ful? If  it  were  so,  I  myself,  in  whom  desire  for  the  good  and 
hatred  of  evil  surpass  any  theoretical  conviction,  would  be 
the  first  to  tear  up  these  pages.  But  happily  we  can,  even  at 
present,  already  catch  a  glimpse  of  a  less  discouraging  way, 
which,  without  abolishing  the  struggle  against  crime,  will  admit 
of  less  harsh  means  of  repression. 

The  new  way  which  is  open  before  us  is  only  in  part  pointed 
out  by  our  pitiless  criticism  of  present  penal  methods  and  our 
praise  of  preventive  measures  as  the  most  direct  and  effective 
helps  against  crime.  The  new  method  requires,  as  one  of  the 
principal  measures,  the  creation  of  institutions  for  utilizing  the 
criminal  in  the  same  degree  as  the  honest  man,  to  the  great 
advantage  of  both;  and  this  so  much  the  more  since  very  often 
crime  (for  example,  the  crime  of  anarchy)  reveals  the  most 
infected  seat  of  the  social  diseases,  just  as  cholera  points  out 
the  quarters  of  the  city  that  most  require  sanitation. 

We  aim  at  this  end  in  proportion  as  we  lay  aside  the  ancient 
repressive  cruelty,  in  accordance  with  the  change  in  the  times 
and  the  amelioration  of  social  conditions.  If  it  is  true  that 
crimes  are  increasing  in  number,  it  is  also  true  that  they  are 
being  stripped  of  their  ancient  atavistic  ferocity  and  clothed  in 
new,  less  repugnant,  and  less  savage  forms,  —  like  forgery  and 
swindhng,  against  which  culture  and  foresight  are  a  better 
safeguard  than  repression.  As  the  times  change  we  see  harsh 
social  inequalities  become  less  and  less,  and  just  as  our  most 
urgent  social  needs  have  been  met  by  collective  means,  in 
public  lighting,  education,  and  road-making,  so  now  we  begin 
to  see  that  similar  means  will  repair  our  greatest  social  injus- 
tices, and  that  in  this  way  one  of  the  most  powerful  causes 
of  accidental  crime,  the  insufficiency  of  work,  may  be  elimi- 


§  248]  THE  UTILIZATION  OF  CRIME  447 

nated  and  the  excess  of  wealth,  another  potent  cause  of  crime, 
prevented. 

There  exists,  it  is  true,  a  group  of  criminals,  born  for  evil, 
against  whom  all  social  cures  break  as  against  a  rock  —  a  fact 
which  compels  us  to  eliminate  them  completely,  even  by  death. 
But  we  comprehend  that  this  deplorable  necessity  will  end  by 
disappearing,  —  at  least  for  the  less  dangerous  criminals,  the 
criminaloids,  —  and  that  the  means  of  adapting  them  to  social 
life  will  become  more  and  more  frequent,  thanks  to  medical 
cure  and  to  their  utilization  in  occupations  suited  to  their 
atavistic  tendencies.  Such  would  be  war  or  surgery  for  homi- 
cides, the  poHce  or  journalism  for  swindlers,  etc.,  and  finally 
colonization  in  wild  and  unhealthy  countries  for  vagabonds, 
where  they  would  be  at  least  subjected  to  a  fixed  abode. 

If,  on  the  one  hand,  natural  history  has  shown  us  the  exist- 
ence of  murderous  organs  even  in  plants  (carnivorous  plants),^ 
it  shows  us  also,  almost  as  a  symbol  of  human  charity,  numer- 
ous cases  of  symbiosis,  i.  e.,  instances  where  plants,  harmfiil 
in  themselves,  become  useful  and  beneficial  when  united  to- 
gether, while  increasing  their  own  vigor.  Thus  the  richness  of 
nitrogen  in  leguminous  plants  is  due  to  a  schizomicete,  the 
Rhizobium  leguminosarum  of  Frank,  which  collects  in  the  roots 
of  these  plants  and  penetrates  by  their  rootlets  in  the  earth 
into  their  very  cells,  where  it  multiplies.  The  cells,  in  turn, 
being  irritated,  divide,  giving  rise  to  another  tubercle,  where 
the  germ  is  formed,  part  of  which  is  utilized  by  the  plant,  and 
another  part  spreads  in  the  soil,  increasing  its  richness  in  nitro- 
gen. In  the  animal  world  we  see  the  medusa  Combessa  Palmipes, 
which  attacks  everything  that  approaches  it,  defending  the 
Caranx  melampygus  against  the  large  fishes;  and  in  the  same 
way  the  hermit  crab,  in  place  of  devouring  the  Actinia,  allows 
it  to  fasten  itself  upon  its  shell,  and,  while  carrying  and  pro- 
tecting it,  makes  use  of  its  brilliant  color  to  attract  its  own 
prey.  If  science  has  shown  us  that  the  fusion  of  two  useless 
or  harmful  plants  may  be  useful,  as  when  the  fungi  and  the 
algae  together  produce  the  lichens,  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  society  will  find  the  means,  with  an  appropriate  symbi- 
1  "Homme  Criminel,"  Vol.  I,  Pt.  I. 


448  CKIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§248 

otic  culture,  to  acclimate  the  criminaloid  to  the  environment  of 
the  most  fully  developed  civilization,  not  only  tolerating  him 
but  also  utilizing  him  to  its  own  advantage.  The  time  is 
doubtless  not  far  distant  when  we  shall  see  in  human  civiliza- 
tion the  carnivorous  plants  being  ehminated,  while  the  sym- 
biotic plants  go  on  increasing. 

But  we  shall  attain  this  end  completely  only  upon  the  basis 
of  the  new  science  of  anthropology,  which,  by  individualizing 
its  work,  can  give  us  powerful  aid  in  discovering  the  special 
tendencies  of  criminals,  in  order  to  direct  them  and  utihze  the 
less  anti-social  of  them. 

Nino  Bixio  is  a  striking,  example  of  the  possibility  of  this 
reform.  Criminal  and  impulsive  from  his  childhood,  he  was 
the  terror  of  his  companions,  whom  he  struck  on  all  occasions. 
A  vagabond  and  deserter,  he  seemed  entirely  incorrigible;  yet 
he  became  a  famous  man  when  he  was  brought  into  the  navy, 
where  he  could  expend  his  excess  of  activity.  In  the  same  way 
men  are  not  rare  whom  Garibaldi  transformed  from  vagabonds 
into  heroes.  Very  often  in  prisons  I  have  heard  thieves  and 
assassins  declare  that  they  had  committed  their  crimes  only 
in  order  to  get  the  means  to  become  comedians  or  bicyclists; 
protesting,  with  that  accent  that  does  not  admit  of  doubt, 
that  if  they  had  been  able  to  attain  their  ideal  they  would 
have  become  famous  and  forever  escaped  from  crime.  I  am 
the  more  convinced  that  they  were  right,  since  I  have  observed 
born  criminals  occupying  high  positions  in  the  world,  who 
satisfied  their  evil  propensities  in  the  exercise  of  their  profes- 
sion, becoming  very  often,  instead  of  the  anti-social  beings  they 
once  were,  useful  members  of  society.  There  is  a  certain  cele- 
brated surgeon  who  presents  upon  his  face  and  skull  and  even 
in  his  talk  all  the  marks  of  congenital  criminality,  of  which  he 
has  also  the  aetiology.  He  has  found  an  outlet  for  his  cruel 
energy  in  surgical  operations  which,  while  doubtless  sometimes 
dangerous,  have  nevertheless  always  the  signs  of  genius.  I 
have  also  known  a  certain  Trinis,  an  athletic  workman,  who  was 
well-behaved  as  long  as  he  could  spend  his  energy  upon  his 
work,  but  became  dangerous  as  soon  as  sickness  kept  him 
idle.     This  is  the  type  of  the  murderer  from  superabundance 


§248]  THE  UTILIZATION  OF  CRIME  449 

of  force,  which  he  discharges  against  someone  else,  especially 
against  the  poUce.  I  have  known  another  criminal,  analgesic 
and  afflicted  with  vertigo  from  birth,  who  remained  honest  as 
long  as  he  could  satisfy  his  fondness  for  the  sight  of  blood  in 
his  trade  of  butcher.  When  he  became  a  corporal,  however, 
he  beat  the  soldiers  to  whom  he  had  to  teach  the  manual  of 
arms.  Out  of  work  he  became  a  swindler,  thief,  and  murderer. 
Tolu,  the  Sardinian  brigand,  many  times  a  murderer,  was  in 
the  last  years  of  his  life  very  useful  for  the  public  safety  in 
Sardinia  against  certain  bands  organized  to  steal  cattle,  whom 
he  kept  in  order  by  the  terror  of  his  name  alone,  while  soldiers 
and  gendarmes  could  do  nothing  against  them.  Tiburzio  did 
the  same  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  the  Roman 
campagna,  and  prevented  all  thefts  by  other  criminals;  but 
Tolu  did  still  more,  for  he  introduced  the  prevention  of  crime 
by  having  cattle  lent  to  those  who  would  otherwise  have  had 
to  steal  them,  and  persuaded  the  people  that  honest  labor 
pays  better  than  theft.^ 

I  have  shown  in  my  previous  studies  ^  that  genius,  like  moral 
insanity,  has  its  basis  in  epilepsy.  It  is  not  absurd,  then,  to 
see  moral  insanity  united  with  genius,  and  by  that  very  union 
made  not  only  harmless  but  sometimes  even  useful  to  society. 
This  occurs  in  the  case  of  great  conquerors  and  leaders  of 
revolutions,  so  that  the  criminal  marks  escape  notice,  even 
with  contemporaries,  although  they  may  be  even  more  strik- 
ing than  the  marks  of  genius.  When  we  study  the  lives  of 
the  great  pioneers  in  Australia  and  America  we  see  that  they 
were  almost  all  born  criminals,  pirates,  or  assassins,  whose 
excessive  fondness  for  action,  strife,  carnage,  and  novelty, 
which  would  have  been  an  immense  danger  for  their  country, 
found  a  useful  outlet  in  the  midst  of  tribes  of  savages.  All 
this  proves  that  we  must  profit  by  the  change  which  epileptic 
insanity  sometimes  brings  on,  impelling  bom  criminals  to 
excessive  altruism  and  even  saintliness,  which,  in  its  turn, 
draws  along  not  only  individuals  but  whole  masses  in  an  epi- 
demic of  virtue.     Such  were  the  cases  of  Lazzaretti,  of  Loyola, 

1  Costa,  "II  Brigante  Tolu,"  1879. 

2  "Man  of  Genius,"  Pt.  IlL 


450  CRIME:    ITS  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES        [§248 

and  of  St.  John  of  Ciodad.  Their  insensibihty  to  pain  and 
their  recklessness  make  heroes  of  them  in  the  face  of  danger, 
as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  Hollen,  Fieschi,  and  Mottini,  who 
had  gained  medals  for  valor  in  war,  and  the  Clephtes,  who  were 
the  first  heroes  of  the  Greek  war  of  independence.  Many  are 
criminals  from  an  impulsiveness  which  drives  them  as  irre- 
sistibly toward  good  as  toward  evil.  It  is  thus  that  we  may 
explain  the  heroism  of  the  convicts  at  the  time  of  the  cholera 
at  Naples  and  Palermo,  and  the  similar  heroism  which  saved 
the  whole  village  of  Kotscha  from  burning. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  state,  instead  of  using  repres- 
sive measures,  ought  to  attempt  to  direct  to  great  altruistic 
works  that  energy,  that  passion  for  the  good,  the  just,  and  the 
new,  which  animates  the  criminal  by  passion  and  the  political 
criminal.  A  great  people  ought  to  aim  at  the  utilization  of 
these  forces,  which,  left  to  themselves,  would  certainly  become 
dangerous;  for  they  can  be  utilized,  and  may  even  succeed  in 
transforming  the  apathetic  masses.  Revolutions  are  the  result 
of  energies  entirely  polarized  toward  the  new  and  the  useful, 
but  often  the  immaturity  of  the  innovations  which  they  set 
themselves  to  introduce  makes  them,  for  the  time  being,  un- 
suitable and  dangerous.  It  follows,  then,  that  the  punishment 
of  the  authors,  if  it  is  at  all  possible  to  punish  them,  ought  not 
to  be  made  painful;  and  if  it  is  necessary  to  prevent  the  new 
movement  from  starting  prematurely,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
prevent  it  from  taking  a  direction  which  might  be  advantageous 
at  a  more  propitious  time.^  If  the  ball  which  struck  Garibaldi 
had  killed  him,  many  great  works  would  never  have  seen  the 
day;  and  if  death  had  not  so  soon  snatched  him  from  us,  who 
knows  whether  he  would  not  have  realized  his  dream  of  turn- 
ing the  marshes  of  Italy  into  fertile  fields,  in  place  of  our  throw- 
ing ourselves  headlong  into  the  barren  moors  of  Africa.  In  a 
nation  like  Russia,  exhausted  by  an  all-powerful  bureaucracy, 
we  have  seen  the  energy  of  persecuted  sectaries  transform  almost 
uninhabitable  regions  into  fruitful  fields  with  prosperous  and 
populous  cities. 

Here  are  the  results  of  symbiosis.  This  is  the  sublime  goal 
*  Lombroso,  "Le  Crime  Politique  et  Les  Revolutions,"  1894. 


§248]  THE  UTILIZATION  OF  CRIME  451 

which  the  great  Redeemer  and  the  prophets  foresaw  when  they 
prophesied,  "The  wolf  and  the  lamb  shall  feed  together,  and 
the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the  bullock.  .  .  .  They  shall  not 
hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain,  saith  the  Lord"; 
and  it  is  what  Madame  de  Stael,  that  saint  of  a  newer  time, 
divined  when  she  declared:  "To  understand  is  to  pardon." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  WRITINGS  OF 

CESARE  LOMBROSO  ON  CRIMINAL 

ANTHROPOLOGY  1 

1863  Prelezione  al  Corso  di  Clinica  di  malattie  mentali  {Gazzetta 

Medica  Lomh.,  Chiusi,  Milano). 

Cenni  di  geografia  medica  italiana.    Ai  medici  militari  d'ltalia 

{Giornale  di  Medicina  militare,  pag.  481). 

Memoria  su  un  tumore  del  cervelletto  (Letta  alia  conferenza 

scientifica  dell'Ospedale  militare  di  Pavia)  {Id.,  pag.  1080). 

1864  Sul  tatuaggio  degli  Italiani  {Id.). 

Rivista  Psichiatrica  e  Psicologica  (Bibliografie  pubblicate  negli 

Annali  Universitari  di  Medicina,  marzo,  luglio  e  ottobre). 

1865  La  medecine  legale  des  alienations  mentales  etudiee  par  la  me- 

thode  experimentale.  Rapport  a  la  Societe  de  Marseille 
{Bulletin  des  Travaux  de  la  SocieU  Imperiale  de  Midici  de 
Marseille). 

La  medicina  legale  nelle  alienazioni  mentali  studiata  col  metodo 

sperimentale.    Pag.  49  (con  2  tav.).     Padova,  Prosperini  edit. 

Studi   clinici  suUe   malattie   mentali.     Torino   {Giornale  della 

Regia  Accfldemia  di  Medicina,  N.  13,  14). 

1866  Ancora   suUa    medicina   legale   delle   alienazioni    studiata   col 

metodo  sperimentale.  Risposta.  Pag.  36.  Padova  {Gazzetta 
Medica  Italiana  Provincie  Venete,  Anno  IX,  N.  5,  6,  e  7). 

Diagnosi  psichiatrico-legali  eseguite  col   metodo  sperimentale 

{Archivio  ital.  per  le  malattie  mentali  e  nervose,  Milano). 

1867  Algometria  elettrica  nell'  uomo  sano  ed  alienato  {Ann.  Univer- 

sali  di  Medicina,  Milano). 

Diagnosi  psichiatrico-legali  eseguite  col  metodo  sperimentale 

{Archivio  italiana  per  le  malattie  nervose.  Anno  IV,  pag.  50, 
Milano). 

SuU'orina  nei  pazzi  {Riv.  Clinica). 

Sul  peso  dei  sani  e  dei  pazzi  {Id.). 

Craniometria  nei  sani  e  nei  pazzi  {Id.). 

Mania  epilettica  da  cisticerco  nei  cervcUo  e  nei  reni  {Accademia 

di  Medicina,  Torino). 

Sulla  medicina  legale  delle  alienazioni  {Gazz.  Med.  It.,  Padova). 

1  This  Bibliography  was  kmdly  prepared  by  Professor  Lombroso's  daugh- 
ter, Signora  Gina  Lombroso-Ferrero. 


454  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1867  Azione  degli  aslri  e  deUe  meteore  sulla  merde  umana.    Pag.  110. 

Premiato  dall'Istituto  Lombardo  {Archivio  itaiiano  per  le 
malattie  nervose,  Milano). 

Dinamometria  neU'uonio  sano  e  neU'alienato  (Id.). 

1868  Sull'algometria  elettrica.     Risposta.     {Rend.  delV Istitvio  Lom- 

bardo,  serie  II,  vol.  I,  fasc.  VIII,  Milano). 

Diagnosi  psichiatrico-legali.     Parte  II.     Studiate  con  metodo 

sperimentale  (in  collaborazione  con  Platner).  Stabilimento 
Redaelli,  Milano  (Archivio  itaiiano  per  le  malattie  nervose, 
pag.  28). 

Sulla  relazione  tra  I'eta  ed  i  punti  lunari  e  gli  accessi  delle 

alienazioni  mentali  e  dell'epilessia  {Rendiconti  deWIstituto 
Lombardo,  serie  II,  vol.  I,  fasc.  VI). 

Di  alcuni  studi  statistici  ed  anatomo-patologici  dei  psichiatri 

di  Olanda,  Germania  ed  Inghilterra  {Archivio  itaiiano  per  le 
malattie  nervose,  Milano). 

Azioni  del  magnate  sui  pazzi  (Rivista  Clinica,  Bologna). 

Studi  clinici  psichiatrici  (Gangrena  polmonare.    Mania  acuta. 

Demenza  pellagrosa.  Mania  pellagrosa).  {Gazzetta  medica 
italiana,  anno  XI,  N.  46,  47,  48,  49.    Padova,  Prosperini). 

Influenze  delle  meteore  suUe  tendenze  criminali  {Arch,  itaiiano, 

Milano). 

Documenti  per  la  storia  della  meteorologia  applicata  alia  medi- 

cina  e  psicbiatria  {Archivio  itaiiano  per  le  malattie  mentali  e 
nervose). 

1871  Sulla  pazzia  criminale  in  Italia  nel  68,  69,  70  {Rivista  Discipline 

Carcerarie). 

Circonvoluzione   cerebrale   soprannumeraria   di   un   omicida  e 

satiriaco  {Archivio  itaiiano  delle  malattie  nervose,  Milano). 

Osservazioni  meteorologiche-psichiatriche  dell'anno  astronomic© 

1868  nella  clinica  psichiatrica  di  Pavia  {Rivista  clinica, 
Bologna). 

Dei  pazzi  criminali  in  Italia  {Riv.  Discipline  Carcerarie,  Roma). 

Diagnosi  medico-legale  di  un  uxoricida  (in  collaborazione  con 

Scarenzio)  {Gazzetta  medica  italiana,  Milano). 

Osservazioni  di  psicologia  patologica  {Morgagni,  Napoli). 

Caso  di  un  tricoma  circoscritto  in  un  monomaniaco  {Rendiconti 

deWIstituto  Lombardo) . 

Esistenza  di  una  fossetta  cerebellare  mediana  nel  cranio  di  un 

delinquente  {Rendiconti  deWIstituto  Lomb.,  vol.  V,  fasc.  18). 

1872  Rivista  psicbiatrica  (Bibliografie).     Milano,  Tip.  Sociale. 

Verzeni  e  Agnoletti  {Riv.  di  Discipline  carcerarie,  Roma). 

SuU'istituzione   dei   manicomi   criminali   in   Italia    {Rendiconti 

deWIstituto  Lombardo). 

Antropometria  di  400  delinquenti  veneti  {Id.,  vol.  V,  fasc.  XII). 

—  (Nucleo  deWUomo  delinquente). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  455 

1872  Cranio  (Enciclopedia  medica  Vallardi). 

Antropofagia  (Id.).  —  Cretinismo. 

Quattro  casi  di  microcefalia  {Rendiconti  deWIst.  Lomb.,  vol  IV 
fasc.  XX;  vol.  V,  fasc.  I). 

1873  Sulla  Teorica  dell'imputabilita  e  la  negazione  del  libero  arbitrio 

di  Ferri.     {Archivio  Giuridico,  XXI,  fasc.  3°,  Pisa). 
Sulla  statura  degli  italiani  in  rapporto  all'antropologia  e  all'igiene 
{Rendiconti  delVIstituto  Lomhardo,  serie  II,  vol,  VI,  fasc.  VI). 
Milano,  Tip.  Bernardoni. 

Diagnosi  medico  legali  eseguite  col  metodo  antropologico  speri- 

mentale.    Pag.  63  (Annali  Universali  di  medicina,  vol.  223). 
Milano,  Fratelli  Rechiedei. 

Studi  clinici  e  antropometrici  suUa  microcefalia  ed  il  cretinesimo. 

Pag.  57  {Rivista  Clinica,  Bologna,  Fava  e  Garagnani). 

Rivista  Psichiatrica   (Rivista  di  Medicina,  di  Chirurgia  e  di 

Terapeutica,  Milano,  Tip.  Sociale). 

Sui  rapporti  del  cervelletto  coUa  fossetta  occipitale  mediana 

(in  coUaborazione  con  Bizzozzero)   {Archivio  d'Antro])ologia, 
v.  Ill,  Firenze). 

Verzeni  ed  Agnoletti  studiati  col  metodo  antropologico.    Roma. 

1874  Casuistica  medico-legale.    Pag.  63.    Milano,  Rechiedei  editori. 

Alfetti  e  passioni  dei  delinquenti  (2°  nucleo  delV Uomo  Delin- 

quente).     Pag.  22.     Nota  letta  allTstituto  Lombardo. 

Raccolta  di  casi  attinenti  alia  medicina  legale  {Id.). 

1876  Sulla  trasfusione  del  sangue  comparato  agli  innesti  animali. 

Memoria  di   120  pagine  premiata  allTst.  Lombardo  {Mor- 
gagni,  fasc.  ott.-nov.-dic,  Napoli). 

Delia  fossetta  occipitale  mediana  in  rapporto  coUo  sviluppo  del 

vermis  {Rivista  sperimentale  di  freniatria  e  medicina  legale, 
anno  I,  fasc.  II). 

Behandlung  der  Eczemate  und  Chloasmat  von  verdorbenem 

Mais  {Centralbl.). 

Uomo  Delinquente,  V-  ediz.    Pag.  252.     Milano,  Hoepli. 

Seconda  risposta  verbale  al  dott.    Biflfi  {Rendiconti  deWIstUiUo 

Lombardo,  4  maggio  1876). 
I  veleni  del  maiz  e  della  pellagra  {Id.,  23  marzo  1876). 

SuU'abolizione  dei  riformatori  dei  minorenni  {Rivista  di  disci- 

pline carcerarie,  Roma). 

II  cervello  dell'assassino  Leopoldo  Frend  {Rivista  di  discipline 

carcerarie,  VI,  8,  Roma). 

1877  Sulla  statistica  della  pellagra  in  Italia.     Roma-Torino,  Eredi 

Botta. 

Sui  veleni  del  cadavere  e  suUa  pellagra  {Gazz.  Medica  Italiana, 

Padova,  1877). 

Sulle  condizioni  economiche-igieniche  dei  contadim  dell'Alta  e 


456  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Media  Italia.    Pag.  50.    Estr.   daWItalia  agricola,   Milano, 
Tip.  Bernardoni. 

1877  I  veleni  del  maiz  e  le  loro  applicazioni  alVIgiene  ed  alia  Terapia 

(Rivista  Clinica  di  Bologna).    Pag.  377.    Tip.  Fava  e  Gara- 
gnani,  Bologna. 

Sulla  medieina  legale  del  cadavere.    Pag.  200.    Torino,  Baglione 

editore. 

1878  Dell'influenza  dell'orografia  sulla  statura  {Arch,  di  Statistica, 

anno  II,  fasc  III).     Roma,  Tip.  Elzeviriana. 

Note  di  Antropometria  sulla  Lucchesia  e  Garfagnana  {Annali  di 

statisitca,  vol.  I,  serie  II.     Roma). 

Sulla  Trossarello-Sola.    Relazione.    Torino  (Rivista  di  discipline 

carcerarie,  anno  VIII,  fasc.  8). 

Alcuni  cenni  suU'assassino  Alberti  (in  coll.  con  Maffei).    Torino. 

■     Su  Giovanni  Cavaglia  omicida  e  suicida  (coll.  Dr.  Fiore)  {Rivista 

di  discipline  carcerarie,  anno  VII,  fasc.  8). 

Sul  cranio  di  Volta  {Rendiconti  deWIstituto  Lombardo,  serie  II, 

vol.  XI,  fasc.  7). 

Mnemosine.     Poesia.     20  maggio  1878.     Tip.  Bortolotti. 

Su  alcuni  prodotti  del  maiz  guasto.     Strassburg,  di  Husemann. 

L'Uomo   Delinquente.      2^   edizione.      Vol.    unico.      Pag.    740. 

Torino,  Bocca. 

Del  maiz  in  rapporto  alia  salute  {Rassegna  settimanaie,  giugno 

1878,  Firenze). 

Rapporto  sull'opera:  "De  la  cause  reelle  de  la  pellagre"  {Giorn. 

Accad.). 

Relazione   sull'   opera   "Ueber  einige  Producte   des  gefaulten 

Mais"  {Id.). 

1879  Studi  su  106  cranii  piemontesi  (in  coll.  con  Manuelli)  {Giomale 

deW Accademia  di  Medieina  di  Toririo). 

Studi   sui   segni  professionali   dei  facchini  e  sui  lipomi   delle 

Ottentotte,  camelli  e  zebu,  e  suUo  stricnismo  cronico.     Pag. 
46  (in  collab.  con  Cougnet)  {Id.). 

Sullo  stricnismo  cronico. 

Prolusione  al  corso  di  medieina  legale  {Giomale  intemazionale 

di  scienze  mediche,  anno  I,  genn.,  Napoli). 

SulVincremento  del  delitto  in  Italia  e  sui  mezzi  per  arrestarlo. 

Pag.  157.     Torino,  Bocca. 

Considerazioni  al  processo  Passanante.     Pag.  60  {Giomale  In- 

temazionale delle  scienze  pratiche,  anno  I,  n.  4). 

Su  Passanante:    risposta  alia  Nota  del  prof.  Tamburini  {Id., 

anno  I,  fasc.  9). 

La  pellagra  nella  provincia  del  Friuli  {Giomale  della  R.  Acca- 

demia di  Medieina  di  Torino). 

Parere  medico-legale  sullo  stato  di  mente  di  G.   Berton  nel 

momento  in  cui  dettava  il  suo  testamento  4  aprUe.     Udine, 
Lavagna. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  457 

1879  La  pellagra  in  rapporto  alia  pretesa  insufficienza  alimentare 

(Giorn.  Ace.  di  med.  di  Torino). 

Su  alcune  nuove  forme  di  malattie  mentali  {Id.). 

Cinque  casi  di  divisione  dell'osso  malare  (in  collaborazione  con 

Amadei)  {Id.). 

1880  II  vino  nel  delitto,  nel  suicidio  e  nella  pazzia.     Conferenza. 

Ermanno  Loescher  edit.,  Torino. 

Sulla    Trossarello-Sola.      Relazione    {Archivio    di    Psichiairia, 

Torino) . 

Scrittura  ideografica  di  un  monomaniaco  (in  collaborazione  con 

ToseUi).     Con  2  tav.  {Id.). 

Del  lavoro  dei  carcerati  nelle  opere  di  bonifica.    Comunicazione 

al  Congresso  Internazionale  d'lgiene  {Annali  Universali  di 
medicina,  7-11  settembre). 

1881  La  nuova  proposta  di  legge  sui  Manicomii  criminali  {Archivio 

di  Psich.,  vol.  II,  fase,  2). 

Delinquenti  d'occasione  {Id.,  II,  313,  Torino). 

Sfigmografia  dei  delinquenti  alienati.     Torino. 

SuU'incremento  del  delitto  in  Italia  e  sui  mezzi  per  arrestarlo 

{Rivista  sperimentale). 

1882  Imbecillita  morale  in  doima  ladra  e  prostituta  {Id.,  volume  11, 

fase.  2). 

Sui  delitto  e  le  meteore.    Studi  critici  {Rivista  Clinica,  Milano, 

Vallardi). 

SuU'azione  del  magnete  e  suUa  trasposizione  dei  sensi  nell'iste- 

rismo  {Arch,  di  Psichiairia,  III,  3). 

La  reazione  vasale  nei  delinquenti  e  nei  pazzi  (in  collaborazione 

con  Cougnet)  {Id.,  V,  pag.  1). 

Gasparone  (con  fig.).     Torino,  Loescher  edit. 

La  reazione  vasale  nei  delinquenti  (con  Couguet)  {Arch.  Psich., 

Torino). 

Pazzia  morale  e  delinquente  nato  {Id.). 

Sui  mancinismo  nei  sani,  pazzi  e  ciechi  {Id.). 

Denti  a  sega  negli  idioti  {Id.). 

Processo  Spada  {Id.). 

1883  Sull'analgesia  ed  anestesia  dei  criminali  e  dei  pazzi  morali  (in 

collaborazione  con  Pateri)  {Id.). 

Sui  caratteri  fisionomici  di  criminali  e  di  818  uomini  viventi 

in  liberta   (in  collaborazione  con  Massimino)    {Archivio  di 
Psichiairia). 

Fossa    occipitale    mediana    delle    razze    umane    {Gazzetta  degli 

Ospedali,  24  giugno,  n.  50,  Milano). 

Capacita  cranica  di  121  criminali  {Arch,  di  Psichiairia). 

Delitti  di  libidine  e  di  amore,  con  2  fig.  {Id.). 

Omicidio  e  furto  per  amore  pazzesco  {Id.). 

L'aTnore  anomalo  e  precoce  nei  pazzi  {Id.). 


458  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1883  La  fisionomia  di  donne  criminali  (in  coUaborazione  con  Marro) 

(Arch,  di  psickiatria) . 

Riflessi  tendinei  nei  criminali  (Id.)  (Id.). 

Processo  Pelzer  (Id.). 

L'orecchio  nelle  atrofie  degli  emisferi  (Id.). 

1884  Pazzo  morale  e  delinquente  nato  (Id.). 

Misdea  (in  coUaborazione  con  Bianchi).     Torino,  Fr.  Bocca. 

Pro  schola  mea  (Arch,  di  psichiatria). 

1885  L'identita  dell'epilessia  colla  pazzia  morale  e  delinquenza  con- 

genita.    Pag.  29  (Archivio  di  psichiatria,  Torino). 

Epilessia  larvata  (con  Morselli)  (Id.). 

Del  tribadismo  nei  manicomi  (Id.). 

Ninfomania  paradossa  (Id.). 

Del  tipo  criminale  nei  delinquenti  politici  (con  R.  Laschi)  (Id.). 

Nuovi  dati  suU'identita  dell'epilessia  e  pazzia  morale  (Id.). 

1886  Del  tribadismo  nei  manicomii  (Arch,  di  psichiatria,  vol.  VI). 

I  processi  Pel  e  Zerbini  e  la  nuova  scuola  criminale  (Id.,  v.  VI). 

Epilessia  larvata.    Pazzia  morale  (Perizia  in  coUaborazione  con 

MorseUi)  (Id.,  vol.  VI,  fasc.  1). 

I  delitti  di  libidine,  2*^  ediz.     Pag.  57.     Torino,  Fratelli  Bocca. 

La  prima  esposizione  internazionale  di  antropologia  criminale 

(in  coUaborazione  con  Severi)  (Arch,  di  psicologia,  vol.  VII, 
pag.  19).     Torino,  Bocca. 

1888  Nevrosi  vasomotoria  in  un  truffatore   (in  coUaborazione  col- 

rOttolenghi)  (Id.). 

I  pazzi  criminali  (Archivio  di  psichiatria,  Torino). 

I  gesti  dei  criminali  (in  coUaborazione  col  Pitre)  (Id.). 

II  manicomio  criminale  e  la  forza  irresistibUe  (Id.). 

L'arte  nei  delinquenti  (Id.). 

Omicidio  e  suicidio  (Id.). 

Influenza  della  civilta  e  dell'occasione  sul  genio  (Id.). 

L'homme  criminel.    II  Vol.  1*  ediz.    Pag.  580,  con  atlante  di 

XXXIX  tavole.    Paris,  Alcan. 

Troppo  presto !    Appunti  al  nuovo  Codice  Penale.    Torino,  Bocca. 

Palimsesti  del  carcere.     Torino,  Bocca. 

1889  Studi   suU'ipnotismo  e  suUa  credulita   (in   coUaborazione  con 

Ottolenghi).     Unione  Tip.-Torinese.     Estratto  dal  Giornale 
delta  R.  Ace.  di  Medic,  anno  1889,  n.  1. 

Uomo  delinquente.    I  Vol.  4*  ediz.     Delinquente  nato  e  pazzo 

morale.     Pag.  lv-660.     Torino,  Bocca  edit. 

Uomo  delinquente.   II  Vol.   4**  ediz.    Delinquente  Epilettieo, 

d'impeto,    pazzo,   criminaloide.      Con    16    tav.      Pag.    581. 
Torino,  Bocca  ed. 

Grant   di   Torinesi   ignoti    (in   coUaborazione   con   Ottolenghi) 

(Giorn.  Accad.  di  medidna,  Torino). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  459 

1890  //  delitto  politico  e  le  rivoluzioni  (in  collaborazione  con  Laschi). 

Pag.  x-550.     Torino,  Fratelli  Bocca  editori. 
Rapport    au    Congres    penitentiaire    international    de    Saint- 
Petersbourg. 

Medicina  legale  del  cadavere.    Pag.  190.    Pinerolo,  Chiantore  e 

Mascarelli,  2^  ediz. 

Das  Politische  Verbrechen,  ecc,  IE  Vol.     Pag.  250. 

Le  crime  politique  et  les  RevoliUions  (in  collaborazione  con  R. 

Laschi),  t.  1°,  pag.  xin-293.     Felix  Alcan,  Paris. 

Le  crime  politique,  tomo  II,  pag.  423. 

NouveUes  recherches  de  Psichiatrie  et  d' Anthropologie  criminelle. 

Pag.  v-180.     Felix  Alcan,  Paris. 

L'uomo  di  genio.     Traduzione  in  russo  di  Mad.  Tekukenova. 

St-Petersbourg. 

Forma  nuova  di  foUia  del  dubbio  {Giorn.  deU'Acc.  di  Medicina 

di  Torino,  1892,  Num.  8  e  9). 

1891  Petites  et  grandes  causes  des  revolutions.     Paris. 

Les  passions  dans  les  revoltes  (Id.). 

Tatto  e  tipo  degenerative  in  donne  normali,  criminali  e  alienate 

{Arch,  di  Psichiatria). 

La  definizione  del  delitto  politico  (in  collab.  con  Laschi)  (Jd.). 

Due  genii  nevrotici  femminili  {Id.). 

Infanticidio  in  pellagrosa  {Id.). 

Assassinio  epilettico  (in  collaborazione  con  Albertotti)  {Id.). 

Feritore  epilettico  {Id.). 

n  processo  del  Cav  ...  (in  collaborazione  con  Marro)  {Id.). 

Educazione  anticriminale  {Id.). 

Un  autografo  di  Seghetti  {Id.). 

Un'applicazione  pratica  dell'antropologia  criminale  {Id.). 

Educazione  dei  criminali  {Id.). 

L' Antropologie  criminelle  et  ses  r^cents  progres.     Paris,  Alcan. 

The  physionomie  of  Anarchists.     The  Vorth. 

Die  Sinne  der  Verbrecher.     Berlin. 

1892  Relazione  a  S.  E.  il  Ministro  dell'Interno  sulla  ispezione  dei 

manicomi   del   Regno   (in  collaborazione  con   Tamburini  e 
Ascenzi)  {Arch,  di  psichiatria). 

Criminelle  d'occasion  et  criminelle-nee  {Id.). 

Pazzo  e  simulatore  falsario  {Id.). 

Processo  Bonaglia  {Id.). 

Palimsesti  del  carcere  femminile  {Id.). 

1893  Les  corrupteurs  actuels  {Nouvelle  Revue),  Paris. 

Psychologic  des  Wirtes  {Du  Zukunft)  Berlin. 

Sui  recenti  processi  bancarii  di  Roma  e  Parigi  (in  collaborazione 

con  G.  Ferrero)  {Arch,  di  Psichiatria,  vol.  IV,  fasc.  III,  pag. 
191). 


460  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1893  Le  piu  recenti  scoperte  ,ed  applicazioni  delta  Psichiatria  ed  An- 

tropologia  criminale.     Pag.  vii-435,  Bocca  ed.,  Torino. 

La  donna  delinquente,  la  prostituta  e  la  donna  normale  (in  col- 

laborazione  con  G.  Ferrero).    Pag.  xi-640.    Roux  ed.,  Torino. 

Un'inchiesta    americana    sull'Uomo    perfetto    ifiazzetta    Lette- 

raria),  Torino. 

La  longevita  delle  peccatrici  (Tavola  Rotonda),  Napoli. 

1894  Gil  anarchici.     Pag.  95,  Fr.  Bocca  editori. 

L'uomo  di  genio.     G"*  ed.,  pag.  739.     Fr.  Bocca  edit. 

Das    Weih   als   Verbrecherin  und  Prostitute   (con   G.   Ferrero) 

Pag.    587    {VerlagsanstaU  und  Druckerei).     Hamburg  —  Ku- 
rella  trad. 

Neue  Fortschritte  in  den  Verbrecherstudien,  Wilhelm  Friedrich, 

Leipzig. 

H  delitto  e  il  genio  negli  animali  (La  Piccola  Antologia),  Roma. 

1895  L'homme  criminel.     2"  ed.,  vol.  I,  F.  Alcan,  edit.,  Paris. 

L'homme  criminel,  vol.  IL     Criminel  ne  —  Fou  moral-fipilep- 

tique  —  Criminel  d'occasion  —  Par  passion.    Pag.  580.    Felix 
Alcan  edit.,  Paris. 

Die  Anarchisten  (trad,  tedesca  di  Kurella)   {Verlagsardalt  und 

Druckerei).     Hamburg. 

The  femxde  offender  (con  G.  Ferrero).     Fisher  Unwing  edit., 

London. 

Sei  cranii  di  criminali  abissini  (in  collaborazione  col  Dott.  Car- 

rara) {Atti  deWAcc.  di  Medicina  di  Torino). 

La  donna  criminale  e  prostituta,  trad,  in  polacco.     Varsovia, 

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Nevrosi  vasomotoria  in  un  truffatore  istero-epUettico  (in  colla- 

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Criminal   Anthropology   applied    to   Pedagogy    (The   Monist), 

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1896  Les  anarchistes.     Pag.  xx-258.     Ernest  Flammarion,  editeur, 

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La  funzione  sociale  del  delitto.    Pag.  31.    Remo  Sandron  edi- 

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L'uomo  delinquente.     5*  ed.,  vol.  I,  pag.  xxxv-650.     Fr.  Bocca, 

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L'uomo  delinquente,  vol.  II,  pag.  576.     Fr.  Bocca  edit. 

Histoire  des  progres  de  1' Anthropologic  et  Sociologie  criminelles 

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Le  traitement  du  criminel  d'occasion  et  du  criminel-ne  selon  les 

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BIBUOGRAPHY  461 

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1901  D  delitto  nel  secolo  XIX  {Nacion). 

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1902  Giuseppe  Musolino  {Arch,  di  Psich.,  vol.  XXIII,  pag.  1). 
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Libreria  de  Victoriano  Suares. 

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1902,  Berlin. 

Delitti  vecchi  e  delitti  nuovi.    Pag.  iv-335.     Torino,  Fr.  Bocca. 

Innocenza  di  gravissima  imputazione  dimostrata  dall'antropo- 

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1903  La  donna  delinqusnte,  la  prostituta  e  la  donna  normale.    Nuova 

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La  psicologia  di  un'  uxoricida  tribade  {Archivio  di  Psichiatria, 

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1903  Sul  vermis  ipertrofico  e  sulla  fossetta  occipitale  mediana  nei 

normali,  alienati  e  delinquenti  (Id.). 

Razze  e  criminalita  in  Italia  (Id.). 

La  psicologia  criminale  secondo  Melchine  e  le  riforme  peniten- 
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La  liberta  condizionale  e  la  magistratura  in  Italia  (La  Scuola 

Positiva). 

1904  Notre  enquete  sur  la  transmission  de  la  pensee  (Annales  des 

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Ladro  pazzo  morale  {Id.,  Vol.  IV). 

1905  La  perizia  psichiairico-legale  coi  metodi  per  esegvirla  e  la  easuis- 

tica  legale.     Pag,  640.     Torino,  Fr.  Bocca. 

//  caso  Olivo  (in  coUaborazione  con  A.  G.  Bianchi).    Pag.  271. 

IVIilano,  Libreria  Editrice  Nazionale. 

II  momento  attuale.     Milano,  2^  ed. 

Come  diventera  il  delitto  adottandosi  la  nuova  scuola  {Berliner 

Tagehlatt). 

L'armee  des  crimes  et  le  combat  contre  le  crime  {Le  Joumcd, 

aout). 

I  geroglifici  dei  criminali  {Varietas,  gennaio). 

La  psicologia  dei  testimoni  {La  scuola  positiva). 

La  causa  della  genialita  negli  Ateniesi  {Congresso  di  Psicologia, 

Roma). 

Mattoide   falso   monetario   {Arch,  di  psichiatria,  antropologia 

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1906  Prohlemes  du  jour.     Paris,  Flammarion. 

Dell'anarchia  in  Spagna.     (A^.  Antologia). 

Crime  ;  Causes  et  remMes,  2*  ed.    Alcan,  Parigi. 

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Ossessione  isterica  di  patemita  causa  di  omicidio  {Archivio  di 

psichiatria,  ecc,  fasc.  1°  e  2°). 

Psicologia  dei  testimoni  {Id.). 

Du  parallelisme  entre  I'homosexualite  et  la  criminalite  innee. 

Relaz.  al  VI  Congresso  di  Antropologia  criminale  {Id.,  fasc. 
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La  femme  crimineUes  (in  collab.  con  Ferrero),  2'  ediz.,  Parigi, 

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1907  Genio  e  degenerazione.     2*  ediz.,  Remo  Sandron.     Palermo, 

Neue  Fortschritte  der  krimineUen  Anthropologie.  Marhold  (Halle). 

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464  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1907  Neue  Stvdien  uher  Genialitdt  {Schmidt's  Jahrbucher  der  gesammten 

Medizin).     Trad.  Jetsch  (90  pag.). 

Come  nacque  e  come  crebbe  I'antropologia  criminale.    Ricerche 

e  studi  di  psich.,  neurop.    Vol.  dedicate  al  prof.  E.  Morselli. 

Anomalie  in  cranl  preistorici  {Arch,  di  psichiatria,  antropologia 

criminale,  fasc.  1-2). 

La  mortalita  e  la  moralita  in  Italia.    Comunicazione  fatta  alia 

R.  Accademia  di  Medicina  di  Torino,  22  febbraio. 

I  delitti  coU'automobile  {Pall  Mall  Magazine). 

Processo  Thaw  {New-York  World),  1907. 

Id.  {Id.)  1908. 

La  precocita  nel  delitto  {Mitt.  Straffrecht). 

1908  Genio  e  degenerazione.    Nuovi  studi  e  nuove  battaglie.    2*  ediz. 

con  molte  aggiunte.     Remo  Sandron.     Palermo. 

Ueber  die  Entstehungsweise  und  Eigenart  des  Genies  {Schmidt's 

j  Jahrbucher  der  gesammten  Medizin.     Bd.  CCXCIV,  p.  125). 

Neue  Verbrecher-Studien.    Trad.     Jentsch,  Halle,  edit.  Marhold. 

Perche  i  criminali  aumentino  malgrado  le  mitezze  delle  pene 

{Rivista  di  discipline  career arie,  1908). 

Psicologia  di  Nasi  {Neue  Freie  Presse). 

La  criminali te  nord-americaine  {New-York  World). 

La  felicita  nei  pazzi  e  nei  genii  {Archivio  di  Psichiatria,  ecc, 

vol.  XXIX,  pag.  381). 

Criptomnesie  {Id.,  pag.  291). 

1909  Pensieri  sul  processo  Steinheil   {Archivio  di  Psichiatria,  ecc.^ 

vol.  XXX,  pag.  87). 

Nuove  forme  di  delitti  {Id.,  pag.  428). 

I  delitti  e  la  nevrosi  di  Grete  Beyer  {Id.,  pag.  442). 

Alcoolismo  di  Stato  (in  coUab.  con  Antonini)  {Id.,  pag.  462). 

Le  cause  della  criminalita  spagnuola  {Id.,  pag.  545). 


INDEX 


INDEX 

[Rbfebences  abb  to  Paqbs] 


Abortion,  407 
Adoption,  315 
Adultery,  417 
Affinities,  elective,  160 
Age,  175,  410 

of  parents,  170 
Agriculture  and  manufacturing,  130 
Alcoholic  heredity,  169 
Alcoholism,  antagonism  to  crime,  99 

and  crime  statistics,  90 

cure  of,  273 

and  evolution,  101 

and  food  supply,  88 

and  insurrections,  100 

and  pauperism,  89 

pernicious  effect  of,  88 

physiological  effect  of,  93 

prevention  of,  265 

specific  criminality  of,  96 
American  Institute  of  Criminal  Law 

and  Criminology,  xi 
Appeal,  357 
Aristotle,  230 
Art  439 

Artena,  23,  160,  220 
Associations,  of  children,  307 

of  criminals,  212 
Asylums,  280 

for  criminal  insane,  397 
Atavism,  in   crime   and   in   punish- 
ment, 365 

in  Juke  family,  161 


B 

Bad    government,    and    associated 
crime,  216 

and  political  crime,  229 
Bagehot,  52 
Barbarism,  43,  248 

and  associated  crime,  215 
Barnardo,  286,  320  fif. 
Beccaria,  ix 
Bertillon,  53,  252 


Birth-rate  and  immigration,  69 
BoDio,  119 

BORGHETO,  353 

Bosco,  71 

Don,  285,  314 

BOURDE,  50 
BotTRNET,  49 

Brace,  147,  318 
Brachycephaly,  34 
Brockway,  206,  394  ff. 
Buckle,  2 
buzenbbaun,  141 


Calendars,  criminal,  23 
Camorra,  212 

morals  of,  214 
Capital  punishment,  426 
Cardon,  175 
Celtes,  407 
Centers,  criminal,  8 
Charity,  in  Latin  countries,  284   ' 

ineffectiveness  of,  288 
Children,  day  reformatories  for,  318 

English  measures  for,  320 
City  and  country,  72 
Civilization,  43,  249 

and  associated  crime,  220 

and  crimes  of  women,  187 
Civil  status,  193 
Class,  predominance  of,  231 
Climatic  influences,  1,  246 
Cluseret,  101 
Coghlan,  107,  127 
colajanni,  136 
Cold,  2 
Colletta,  221 

COLOCCI,  41 

Comandini,  49 
Complicity,  419 
Conditional  sentence,  391 
Confinement  at  home,  388 
Congestion  of  population,  53 
Convicts,  released,  homes  for,  344 


468 


INDEX 


Cooperation,  278 
CORRE,  12,  77 
Country,  city  and,  72 

placing  in,  315 
Cretien  family,  156 
Crime,  necessity  of,  377 
Crimes,  new,  57 
"Criminal    Man,"  see  Homme  Cri- 

mind 
Criminal,  bom,  xiv,  432 
habitual,  xxv,  419 
insane,  xxii,  375,  420 
asylums  for,  397 
occasional,    xxlv,    135  n.,    376, 

414 
by  passion,  xxii,  376,  412 
political,  xxii,  412,  434 
procedure,  353 
causes  of  absurdities  in,  362 
erroneous  theories  of,  361 
Criminaloids,  xxv,  373,  418 
Criminals,  incorri^ble,  424 
Criminological  prejudices,  359 
Crudeu,  217 

CUBCIO,  5 


D 

Darwin,  1 

Dattdet,  3 

d'Azeglio,  223 

Death  penalty,  426 

Decentralization,  326 

"De  Delectissimis"  (canon),  180 

Defamation,  416 

Delia,  293 

Density  of  population,  59 

and  political  crime,  227 
Deportation,  346 
Derby,  277 
Despine,  156,  341,  342 
Discontent,  economic,  329 
Divorce,  reconamended,  257,  417 
Dolichocephaly,  34 
Du  Camp,  63,  67,  345 
Duel,  416 

DUGDALE,  160  ff. 

DtrptJY,  270 


Econonaic  conditions,  119 

and  political  crime,  237,  239 
Economic  discontent,  329 
Educated,    specific    criminality    of, 
111 


Education,  archaic,  329 

dangers  of,  114,  301 

diffusion  of,  108 

family,  313 

in  prisons,  114 
Educational  methods,  314 
Elmira  Reformatory,  393 
Emigration,  63 

societies,  280 
Employment,  lack  of,  124 

societies,  281 
Environment,  change  of,  and  politi- 
cal crime,  241 
Epidemic  ideals,  234 
Epilepsy,  of  parents,  168 

in    crime    and   in   punishment, 
365,  369 


F 


Famine,  76 

Fayet,  72,  111,  198 

Ferrero,   45,    143,   295,   360,   363, 

364,  413 
Ferri,  8,  138,  206,  245,  386,  415 
Fieschi  family,  156 
FiLANGERI,  358 

Fines,  389 
Franchetti,  47 
Franklin,  229 
Fraud,  prevention  of,  261 
Fregier,  352 


G 

Garofalo,  303 
Gauthier,  332  ff. 
Geology,  17 

GlANNONE,  213 
GiRARD,  193 

Groitrous  districts,  19 
Graded  prison  system,  337 
Grelmann,  39 
Grimaldi,  155 
GuERRY,  5,  7,  13,  179,  187 
Gypsies,  39 

H 

Hair,  light  and  dark,  35 
Hammond,  202 
Harris,  155 
Hashish,  103 
Hausner,  201 

Healthfulness    and    political    crime, 
227 


INDEX 


469 


Heat,  2,  8,  12 

Hereditary  influence,  clinical  proofs 
of,  155 

statistics  of,  151 
'Heredity,  and  associated  crime,  223 

insane,  166 

HOLTZENDORF,  14,  202,  211 

Homme  Criminel,  summary  of,  x  ff. 
Homo-sexual  offenders,  418 
Hot  countries,  crimes  and  rebellions 
in,  13 


Identification,  means  of,  251 
Idleness  and  brigandage,  218 
Illegitimate  children,  145 
Illiteracy,  105 

Illiterate,  specific  criminality  of,  111 
Imitation,  210 

and  political  crime,  233 
Immigration,  63 

and  birth-rate,  69 
Indemnity,  389 
Infanticide,  408 
Innocence,  proof  of,  437 
Insane,  influence  of  occupation  upon, 
203 

criminal,  asylums  for,  397 
defined,  xxii 
Insanity  of  parents,  166 
Insurrections,  85,  100 

and  associated  crime,  220 


Jentsch,  see  Kurella 

Jews,  36 

JoLY,  64  ff.,  118,  131,  135,  139,  199, 

306  n.,  308,  311  411,  429  ff. 
JoRioz,  47,  223 
Judiciary,  327 
"Juke"  family,  156  n.,  161 
Jury,  353 

K 
KrrsELLA  and  Jentsch,  xxxv 


Lacassagne,  72,  111 
Lacroix,  141 
Ladame,  349 
La  Place,  55 
Laurenf,  349 


Lauvergne,  107 

Leaders,  221 

Legal  Aid  Societies,  327 

Legislative  measures,  258 

Legrain,  169 

Lemaitre  family,  156 

Letters,  439 

Levasseur,  106 

Levy,  176 

LdcATELLi,  84,  139,  178,  186,  319 

LoLLi,  175,  193,  204 

LOMBROSO,  ix  ff. 

London,  preventive  institutions  of, 
280  ff. 

LONGTJET,  141 

LoRiA,  237 
LcNiER,  193,  204 


M 

MAcmAVELU,  234 

Mafia,  212  » 

Maggiorani,  218 

Magnan,  273 

Maize,  spoiled,  104 

Malaria,  18 

Manufacturing  and  agriculture,  130 

Manzoni,  177 

Mar6,  83 

Marro,  105,  136,  148,  152  ff.,  155, 

167  ff.,  177,  195,  206,  207 
Mathew,  Fr.,  267,  270,  271 
Maudsley,  xix,  XX 
Mayhew,  56,  115,  175,  225 
Medical  treatment,  324 
Messedaglia,  191,  193,  203 
Minor  offenses,  418 

MOLMENTI,  216 
MoNNiER,  215,  218 

MORDINI,  215 

Morphine,  103 
Mortality  rate,  19 
Mutual  Aid  Societies,  282 

N 

Neglected  children,  institutions  for, 

281 
NiccoLUCCi,  32 
NoRDAU,  xxxi 


o 


Oettingen,  147 
Old  age,  411 
OUVECBONA,  209 


470 


INDEX 


Orography,  17 

and  political  crime,  226 
Orphanages,  281 
Orphans,  147 


Pantaleoni,  122 

Pardon,  351 

Pardon,  358 

Parent-du-ChAtelet,  155,  201 

Parties,  231 

Pauperism,  alcoholism   and,  89 

and  p>olitical  crime,  239 
Pedagogy,  438 
Penal  institutions,  331 
' '  Pen  al  substitutes, "   245 
Penalties,  according  to  criminal  an- 
thropology, 385 

other  than  imprisonment,  387 
Penta,  151 

Periods  of  life,  criminality  at,  179 
Pilgrimages,  68 
PiRO>fTi,  354 
Plethysmography,  254 
PoUce  system,  modem,  250 
POLIDORO,  141 
Pohtical  crime,  226,  434 

prevention  of,  325  ff. 
Political    supremacy,     contest    for, 

326 
Politics  and  Camorra,  215 
Poor    criminals,    preponderance   of, 

135 
Poverty,  and  associated  crime,  219 

prevention  of  influence  of,  275 
Precocity,  175 
Predominance  of  class,  231 
Press,  54,  210,  253 
Price  of  Bread,  76 
Prins,  333 

Prisoners,  care  for,  281 
Prisons,  209 

and  associated  crime,  222 

cellular,  331 
Probation,  391 
Professions,  194 
Proof  of  utihty  of  reforms,  429 
Prostitution,  185 

Psychiatric  expert  testimony,  435 
Psychology  appUed  to  reformatories, 

305 
Punishment,  capital,  426 

corporal,  388 

right  of,  379 


Qu^TELET,  179,  182,  185 


R 


Race,  21,  26,  33,  246 

and  associated  crime,  223 

crossing  of,  228 

and  political  crime,  228 
Racial  aflfinity,  325 
"Ragged  schools,"  319 
Rebellions,  13  (see  also  "Insurrec- 
tions") 
Reclus,  32 
Referendum,  329 
Reform  schools,  309 
Reformatories,    application   of   psy- 
chology to,  305 

day,  318 
Reformatory  at  Elmira,  393 
Reforms,  inappropriate,  233 
Religion,  138 

of  brigands,  213 

and  political  crime,  236 

as  a  preventive,  292 
R6n6,  family  of,  157 
Rencoroni,  182,  184 
Reprimand,  390 
Right  to  punish,  379 
Rondeau,  380 


Saint-Hilaire,  xxviii 
Salsotto,  155 
Salvation  Army,  296 
Savings  Banks,  126 
Savings  in  France,  128 
Scale  of  crime,  supposed,  177 
Schools,  London,  281 
Seasons,  5 
Security,  390 
Sensation,  210 
Sergi,  292,  302 
Sex,  181,  406 

and  recidivism,  190 
Sexual  crimes,  prevention  of,  255 
Seymour,  114 

Sichart,  148,  154,  167  flf.,  205 
Sighele,  23,  46,  160 
Soldiers,  201 
Socquet,  73,  112 
Spagliardi,  308,  318,  345 
Spencer,  132,  221,  305,  326 
Starcke,  76 
Strahan,  156 


INDEX 


471 


Strikes  and  political  crime,  239 
Subsistence,  76 
Substitutes,  penal,  245 
Suffrage,  universal,  327 
Suicide,  aid  to,  415 
Surveillance,  351 
Symbiosis,  446 


Taine,  116,  423 

Tabde,  198 

Tarnowsbq,  155 

Taufacio,  4 

Taxes,  119 

inheritance,  122 

and  political  crime,  238 

Temperature,  extremes  of,  1 
moderate,  3 

Thomas,  348 

Tobacco,  101 

Tradition,  historic,  234 

U 

Uomo  Delinguente,  see  Homme  Cri- 

minel 
Utilization  of  crime,  440 


Verge,  98 
Vebga,  193 
ViLLARI,  47,  219 
VlOLLET-LE-DuC,  63 
ViBGILIO,  151,  167 


w 


Wages  of  prisoners,  344 

Wagner,  373 

Wars,  and  associated  crime,  220 

and  political  crime,  243 
Weapons  and  brigandage,  217 
Wealth,  as  cause  of  crime,  132 

prevention  of  influence  of,  275 
Whittemore,  293 
Wines,  206 

Women,  specific  criminality  of,  183 
Work,  aversion  to,  205 

days  of,  124 


Youth,  410 

YVERN^S,  197 


^4  20     7 


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